Unmasked
by BenRG
Summary: Everyone grows up eventually. Let's take a peek into the lives of some very special youngsters and share the peculiar trials that it brings them. F4/Power Pack crossover; Franklin/Julie pairing
1. Busted!

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

**Author's Notes**

Okay, this is an idea I had whilst reading up on the current plans Marvel has for my favourite superheroes. I'm talking, of course, about Power Pack. Now, don't laugh, but for a barely-teen boy back in the '80s, that series was the centre of the world. The characters were recognisably young people like myself with similar problems, attitudes and behaviours. I found that I genuinely cared about what would happen to them week-by-week. It was a pity that they started coming up with 'freshening up' gimmicks like swapping their powers around (isn't that a common problem with comic books?). I would have liked watching them grow up.

Of course, my ultimate reason for following Power Pack was a dreadful, hopeless crush on the lovely Julie Power, aka Lightspeed ;-)

Adding Franklin Richards to the line-up was an interesting idea on the creative team's part and I often wondered what would have happened as the team grew up together. What would be the consequences of the older members trying to date? Would the Fantastic Four learn the Power kids secret? Would Franklin's powers develop with time and would he get rid of that stupid 'Tattletale' codename?

So… I have assumed that Franklin and Julie are the same age and, as the years have gone by, they have slowly grown into their powers as part of Power Pack. Now, some five years after the Power kids received their powers from the dying Alfrae Whitemane, Franklin and Julie are about to be busted – in more ways than one.

Censor: T – Just for safety's sake

**Chapter 1 – Busted!**

Franklin Richards and Julie Power landed gently on the water-side decking of Pier Four and found themselves just grinning at each other for a long minute. "I... I cannot _believe _that you did that," Julie said with a slight giggle. "Reshaping their getaway car into body-cuffs? You have one _weird_ imagination, Frank."

"And what about you?" Franklin countered. "Flying super-fast around someone to get them into a spin? And since when have you been able to fire kinetic blasts like that?"

Julie shrugged and grinned, maybe just a little flirtatiously, at her best boy friend. "There are lots of things you don't know about me, _Omega_," she said, her voice slightly lower in tone than usual. When she realised what she was doing, she blushed in the easy way of a fair-skinned redhead.

Franklin blushed too and swallowed, clearly nervous. "Yeah? Uh... Well, maybe..." the boy swallowed again. "Maybe I want to find out about them, _Lightspeed_."

The two teen heroes' hands touched and their gazes met in a combination of startlement and some kind of weird _recognition_. Almost on autopilot their hands clasped together; the two stepped towards each other and began to lean closer and closer. Julie could feel her blood rushing in her ears. Her breathing had become quick and shallow and all she could see was Frank's blue eyes as she leaned in, letting her free hand rest against his strong chest. Both teens eyes slid shut and they leant closer to...

"_AHEM_!"

The two fifteen year-olds sprang apart like cats who had just been doused with water at the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat. Franklin and Julie span to see a beautiful blonde woman standing in the open back door of the Pier 4 residence, back-lit by the kitchen light. Susan Richards, The Invisible Woman, glared at her firstborn child and the unidentified but so-obviously _female_ interloper in her best 'You are in for it, kiddo' manner. She was more than pleased to note that the glare was working just fine. "Franklin Jonathan Richards, I assume that you have a good reason for being out so late on a school night? In a _costume_?"

"Um, yeah, about that," Franklin said with a nervous smile. How long had his mother been waiting there? Thanks to her invisibility powers, she could have been there the _whole time_! He was suddenly thankful that he hadn't used Julie's real name.

"Frank was helping me out on patrol, Mrs. Richards," Julie cut in quietly but firmly, drawing Sue's attention to her.

Sue looked at the girl (no, young _woman_, there was no doubting that) in the magenta and black costume and wished she could see the girl's eyes through the orange-tinted rimless goggles that formed part of her mask. The girl was nervous, yes, but Sue couldn't see any obvious threat or deception in her body language. Franklin, on the other hand, was practically sweating panic pheromones but, and Sue found this interesting, he had moved slightly in between her and the unidentified young lady in an unconsciously protective gesture. She sighed gently. _It had to happen eventually,_ she reminded herself, _both parts of it_. "Frank," she began before shaking her head and sighing. "Frank, for pity's sake, take off the mask."

Franklin grinned in a slightly silly way before pulling down his partial-face mask, which covered the side of his face and crossed his eyes and the bridge of his nose so that it dangled around his neck. "Yeah, I guess I can let you know my 'secret identity', right, Mom?"

Sue sternly fought down her urge to smile at her son's mischievous tone and turned her azure gaze onto her guest, raising an eyebrow in a combination of query and a challenge for her to follow Frank's example in unmasking. "Um... if you don't mind, Mrs. Richards," the girl said, "I would prefer not to." Sue nodded, acknowledging that this was her right.

"So, Franklin has been out patrolling with you...? What should I call you anyway?"

"Her name is 'Lightspeed', Mom," Frank put in nervously.

"Lightspeed, eh? Well, was this little late-night adventure your idea, Lightspeed?"

Julie opened her mouth to reply, determined to take the blame on herself rather than let Frank get into trouble. However, Frank beat her to the punch. "It wasn't, Mom. It wasn't really mine either. It just... Well, it just _happened_, I guess, whilst we were practising using our powers." Frank rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "After we stopped that car from crashing, we stopped some street gang types from causing trouble. I told J... Lightspeed that we should come back the next night to make sure they had got the message not to try anything and... and... and..."

"And I guess we just got into the habit of going out every night to make sure everything in the neighbourhood was okay," Julie finished. "We stopped a convenience store robbery tonight!"

From the young lady's body language, Sue bet that, if she could see Lightspeed's eyes through her goggles, they would have been widened in excitement. _I remember that buzz_, she thought nostalgically. It was the slippery slope that everyone who wore the spandex knew, of course. After you had helped people once and felt the incredible rush of the fight then it was hard to the point of being near-impossible to stop doing it. She had hoped, though, that she would have at least had more time to prepare her son for the day when he felt the need to take the step into active superheroics. "Franklin," she said at last. "Didn't it occur to you to tell your father and I what you were doing? What would have happened if you two had bitten off more than you could chew? What if you had been hurt, captured or killed? We wouldn't have known about it until it was too late!"

"Uh... um..." Franklin shifted guiltily. "I guess I... I didn't think about that," he admitted.

"Of course not," Sue said. "I'll bet, however, that you thought that if you told either me or your father that we would have stopped you from doing it, right?" Both teens looked down in a combination of embarrassment and shame. Sue sighed and looked at the girl in magenta and black. "I assume that your parents don't know about this either?"

The girl looked up at the Richards matriarch, her hands clasped in front of her, making a 'washing' motion as they clenched and twisted and Sue easily read the emotion of extreme guilt. "They don't even know I have powers, Ma'am," she said at last.

Sue nodded. "Well then, given that fact and given that this is a school night, I think that you should be heading home, don't you?"

"Um... yeah," the girl responded sheepishly. She turned to Franklin. "I'll see you tomorrow, Frank?"

Before Franklin could reply, Sue interrupted. "I wouldn't count on that, honey. I'm afraid that your _partner_ isn't going to be going anywhere unsupervised for quite a while." The look of horror on both teens' faces sorely tested Sue's need to keep a stern expression on her face. "However, if you want to visit him some time next week, I might be willing to permit that, so long as I or his father are allowed to sit in." Lightspeed looked at her, panic visible in every bit of her posture and expression. "You can come in costume and we won't ask any questions that you don't want to answer," Sue assured her gently.

Lightspeed nodded (a bit spasmodically). "Uh... okay," she said. "Um... so long, Frank. I'll... uh... see you," she said. She turned away and Sue watched as the girl tensed and crouched slightly, clearly about to call on her powers.

"Lightspeed?" Sue called out. The girl turned to look at her in puzzlement. "Think very carefully about telling your parents," she advised. "As dangerous as it is, it might be better for them to learn about this from your lips rather than from the media." _Or from the lips of a policeman, SHIELD agent or, God forbid, a coroner_, Sue added silently.

Lightspeed nodded, her lips compressing a little in worry. Then the girl turned away and raised her arms to either side like a gymnast signalling the end of her display. Her body was suddenly surrounded by a pencil-thin nimbus of multicoloured light and, as Sue watched, she lifted silently into the sky and soared off towards the heavens, leaving a visible sparkling trail of rainbow light behind her, her long red hair streaming out behind her like a banner. Sue's eyes followed the ascending superhuman teenager until her flight path took her behind the One Times Square tower and she was lost to sight.

"Costume off," Franklin said quietly. Sue watched as his red and black costume (stylistically similar to Lightspeed's) was suddenly surrounded by arcs of golden-white light, flashed brightly the same colour and vanished, leaving him standing in his regular white tee shirt (with navy blue '4' logo) and jeans.

"Unstable molecules?" Sue asked.

Franklin nodded. "Stored in a subspace pocket, according to Dad's instruments," he replied.

Sue was more than a little pleased that her son had taken the initiative to look at the mysteries of his costume rather than take things on trust and have a nasty surprise later (no one in the Superhero community was forgetting Venom any time soon). "Where did you get it?"

"Not my secret to tell, Mom," he replied. "I'll ask Lightspeed to check with the others to see if it is okay to let you know."

Now _that_ phrase raised more questions than it answered and Sue found herself wondering in what exactly her son had got himself entangled. More importantly, with _whom_ because, if Sue hadn't interrupted, she was pretty sure that her son had been on the verge of his first kiss. "Um... Franklin, how much do you really know about Lightspeed?"

"Quite a lot, Mom," Franklin said. He looked up at his mother and noticed the worry in her expression. "Yeah, I do know who she _really _is. If she is a part of a plot of Dr. Doom's, it is a really _subtle_ one." Franklin grinned mischievously.

Sue nodded in acknowledgement but wasn't really reassured. Victor's plots usually _were _subtle, after all. "So... she goes to your school?"

Franklin opened his mouth to reply then paused and looked up at his mother with a clear look of annoyance and betrayal in his eyes. Sue mentally slapped herself for fishing for information but she couldn't help it! Her little boy was clearly very close to this young lady and she didn't even know her name beyond her _nom de guerre_! The frustrating thing about 'Lightspeed' was that Sue was _sure_ she knew the girl from somewhere. The body language and that gentle, sweet Virginian accent was familiar to her if only she could... Sue shook her head firmly. Lightspeed had declined to reveal her secret identity to her and she was obliged to respect that by not trying to unmask her so long as she was not an overt threat to Frank. "Right. Stop fishing. Message received." Sue sighed and placed a hand on her son's shoulder. "We will discuss this at length tomorrow after school, young man," she declared. "In the meantime, off to bed with you. I _assume _that you have done your homework?"

Franklin grinned up at his mother, his annoyance of a few moments ago forgotten. "Yeah, we always make sure we've finished before going out on patrol," he said. "Lightspeed is a stickler for schoolwork and keeping up your grades." The boy turned away and walked back into the house that had been the family's home since Reed's lamentable skills at investment management lost them their old headquarters building, Four Freedoms Plaza.

"So, she _does_ go to the same school as Franklin," Sue said with a slight smile. She wondered who she was. Redheads weren't _that_ common after all. The blonde superhuman woman sighed and told herself, once again, to respect Lightspeed's privacy. The girl's identity was _her _secret to reveal, not Sue's to uncover.

As she closed and locked the rear door, Sue mused that she was really more worried about Julie, the oldest daughter of her good friend and fellow teacher Margaret Power. Julie had got very close to Franklin over the past year or so and the two had even been out together on what could be considered a 'date' not so long ago. Sue sipped on the cranberry tea that she would need to relax her enough to sleep tonight after all these revelations. As she did so, she mused that Julie Power was such a sweet-natured child and that it would be a shame for her heart to be broken because Franklin had found a superhuman girlfriend. Although, now Sue thought about it, a fellow superhuman might be a better choice for her son. She would know the life and be able to look after herself in most situations. Not everyone was as flexible and resilient as Mary-Jane Parker, after all.

Sue stood up, deciding that she would talk to Margaret tomorrow and see if Julie was okay. If Franklin had not broken up with her, she would talk to her son _very _seriously, as it was unfair and unethical to be leading on both the redheaded girls...

There was a crash as Sue's glass teacup fell from her suddenly numb fingers and smashed on the tile floor of the kitchen. In her mind's eye, she contrasted the quiet, reserved and thoughtful Julie Power with the costume-clad Lightspeed. Their body types were identical, the hairstyle, the observable body language... _even the Virginian accent_! The Power family was originally from Virginia before they moved to New York! Sue remembered Franklin's comments about homework and realised that such behaviour was completely in-character for the bookish and academically-inclined Julie.

"Oh... oh my God!" Sue gasped into the silence of the kitchen. "Julie! It's _you_! _You're Lightspeed_!"

Now Sue had a _real_ ethical challenge to face. Margaret was a friend, after all - how much should she say and how long should she wait for Julie to make her choice as to whether to reveal her secret to her parents? Quite without meaning to, Julie had got Sue entangled up in her own secrets and the trials that come from living the double-life of a superhero! Sue Richards shook her head with a rueful smile. _It's my own stupid fault_, she told herself. _Finding out a superhero's secret identity always gets you in trouble over your head_!

Sue waited until she was sure Reed's service 'bots had finished clearing up the mess and then, with a slight laugh, went to bed. Tea or no, sleep would not come easily tonight.


	2. Growing Up Is Hard To Do

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

Censor: T - Just to be safe

**Chapter 2 – Growing Up Is Hard To Do**

It was very unusual for Franklin Richards to be delivered to school in his mother's sedan. Not only was Pier 4, in the Lower East Side of New York City, on the school bus route, but Sue's place of work was a junior high school in a different district. Franklin's school was thus not conveniently placed for the superhero mother and school teacher to simply drop her son off on the way to work. However, today she could afford the time, partly because she had a meeting with Franklin's principal and partly because she wanted to test a hypothesis.

"Okay, Frank, what did I tell you?" she asked her son.

Franklin rolled his eyes but managed to keep his tone respectful, not wanting to extend his two-week grounding any longer. "I'm to eat lunch in the cafeteria every day for the next week and I'm to wait for you, Dad or Uncle Johnny to come and collect me rather than take the bus home," he repeated back to her.

Sue nodded. "That's right," she said. She paused before continuing. "One other thing, Franklin. Please do not get involved in any… trouble."

"Mom!"

"I know that you think that spending all that time out with Lightspeed has prepared you for anything, Franklin, but it hasn't. Promise me that you will only get involved if you are being directly targeted or if the other kids are in immediate danger."

Franklin sighed and lowered his eyes. "I promise," he said at last.

Sue nodded. "Thank you. I'll see you tonight," she said. The two got out of the car and, just before Franklin headed off to the schoolyard, Sue caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back for a quick peck on the cheek, making him cringe slightly. Having exercised the inherit motherly privilege of humiliating her son in front of his peers, Sue watched him jog off to his friends.

There was a cluster of three people waiting for Franklin at the gate, all of whom looked worried. Sue did not recognise the slightly oriental-looking girl standing beside a tall, gangly blond boy that Sue immediately identified as Alex Power, the oldest of James and Margaret's children. The third individual was easy to identify and Sue was glad to see that her wits had _not_ deserted her. The young lady with long red hair trailing down her back to waist-height was so obviously both Julie Power and Lightspeed. Any remaining doubt was blown away by the way she touched Franklin's chest in exactly the same way Lightspeed had last night and smiled in greeting, the same grin that she had given Franklin when they had landed on the pier.

Sue's eyebrows shot up when she noted that Julie had clearly started wearing increasingly daring clothes since the last time she had seen her. The magenta tee shirt with the belly cut-out under an open jacket was something new as were the tight jeans… and did the girl have _a navel piercing_? Oh, she would _definitely_ be talking to Margaret today, if only to offer her condolences at her acquisition of a teenage daughter. Sue had enough experience with the time-travelling future teenage version of her daughter, Valeria, to know that this could be a _difficult_ experience indeed.

With a rueful laugh, Sue went off to her meeting.

* * *

Julie stood, watching as Franklin pulled the books he would need for the day from his locker. "So, is your mom okay with all this?" she asked her… what? Best friend…? Best boy friend…? _Boyfriend_? She didn't know and uncertainty sat uneasily with the normally-organised girl. She would have to settle what exactly was happening between them, especially in light of the almost-kiss last night. Frankly, the emotions and the incredible sense of _rightness_ inspired by that moment terrified her.

"No," Franklin replied with a sigh and a scowl before slamming his locker shut. "No, she isn't. I'm _grounded_ Julie! Grounded for two whole _freaking _weeks! I'm not going to be allowed to talk to any of my friends outside of school for the first week either!"

"Two weeks?" gasped Julie in sympathy. "Two? Just for sneaking out to help people? Frank that's so… so… _darn _unfair!"

"I know!" Franklin's reply was a wail familiar to all too many teenagers.

"Well, well, if it isn't the freak and bookworm!"

Frank sighed and turned to face Max Dyle and his small posse of sycophants. The resident bully of Sophomore Year at Clayton P. Sturgeon High School was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to target him. Didn't he know whose kid Franklin was? Didn't it occur to him that Frank might have inherited some of that mojo? Frank could only assume that the bully was relying on the existence of some obscure 'superhero code' that would prevent Franklin from reformatting his reality so that he was born a chimp… not that doing so would change him very much. "What do you want, Dyle?" Frank asked in a bored tone of voice.

"I just wanted to know why Mommy had to take her little boy to school today, Mommy's boy!"

There was a mocking chorus of 'Mommy's boy! Mommy's boy!' from the assembled pack of idiots that made Frank roll his eyes.

"Well, it turns out that I've been a _naughty_ mommy's boy," Frank said with a smirk. He leaned forwards and got into the bully's face. "Mom just had to be sure that I didn't get into _more_ trouble! Of course…" Frank paused and visibly sized up the gorilla-like bully as if he was considering whether he was worth the trouble. "Of course, she isn't here right now, is she?"

Max visibly swallowed and decided to turn to easier meat. "I noticed your new look, Bookworm!" he sneered at Julie. "Why bother? No guy except this freak would ever look at you twice! Dressing like a _ho_ won't convince anyone that you're really a _girl_!" With that, he turned and stomped away.

Franklin turned to look at Julie and was surprised to see the girl was trembling, her face flushed and her right arm half-raised. Frank swore that he could see the rainbow light of Julie's powers sparkling around her fingertips. He grabbed her wrist and forced her to lower her arm. "It isn't worth it, Julie," he murmured, squeezing her wrist in warning. "_He _isn't worth it."

"He… He's right, though!" Julie gritted out between her clenched teeth. "I've grown out my hair long and started dressing more grown up and _still_ they don't even look at me twice! I'm nothing but an ugly bookworm!" Franklin was shocked to see _tears_ in the girl's eyes. He knew that Julie was sensitive but he hadn't realised that this was _this _important to her!

"Hey, now that isn't true!" Frank replied, a little louder than he had intended, transferring his hand to her shoulder so he could squeeze it comfortingly. "If you ask me, I think you look be…" Frank cut himself off. What was the right word to use? 'Beautiful' carried an emotional content that he didn't really want to have to deal with right now, ditto for 'pretty'. 'Hot' would be inappropriate – this was his best friend Julie, after all, not some girl in the street to drool over! "Your new look is great! Really! I like it! And don't worry about Max's bull! I think that the piercing makes you look _sophisticated_ and grown up!"

"Really?" Julie's face brightened in an instant with a sunny smile, a mood swing as violent as only a teenage girl could manage. "You mean that? You're not just saying that because you're my friend?"

"I mean it!" Frank assured her with a smile that was just as broad as Julie's. "Look, if any guy can't see you are automatic girlfriend material, then he is a dumb-cluck and you don't have to worry about him!"

"Thanks Frank!" Julie flung her arms around Franklin's neck and hugged her best boy friend in a completely spontaneous display of friendship and love, completely unaware of how having her body pressed against him affected him.

Frank was in something of a trance as he watched Julie pull her books out of her locker. This was getting ridiculous! He _had_ to talk to Julie and figure out what all these mixed signals were supposed to mean! First this new mode of dress, which had got him all hot and bothered even before the piercing (and how had she got that without him knowing?)! Now she gets all free and easy with physical contact and… and there was the almost-kiss last night. For the first time in his memory, Franklin resented his mother. If she hadn't interrupted when she had…

Franklin blushed as he imagined what kissing Julie would be like and decided that he was going to _have_ to talk to her, privately, as soon as this grounding was over. He was the son of _heroes_, damn it! He had been trained by Captain America himself from when he was still a child! Why should he be afraid of telling his very best friend that he was falling for her?

Franklin looked down and realised that, sometime whilst he was thinking about the situation, that they had left the lockers and were going towards Julie's first class of the day – History. Come to think of it, why did he know Julie's schedule as well as his own, even when they weren't in the same class? He was currently carrying several heavy books for Julie, as well as his own, whilst Julie wasn't carrying _anything_, not even her shoulder-bag, which she had evidently dropped off in her locker. What was worse, he realised that he had been doing this for her practically all semester and it hadn't really registered with him before!

This was ridiculous! Julie was using him like a _pack mule_ and he wasn't even offering a bleat of protest! This was just as bad as the way Dad let Mom win all their arguments and did all the heavy stuff for her, even though she could lift heavy weights or trap bathtub-occupying spiders easily with her invisible force-fields! It reminded him how Uncle Johnny got ordered around by Aunt Lyja and seemed to _enjoy _it! How was it Uncle Ben described it? Oh yeah: '_Whipped_!'

Franklin was trying to formulate something to say to Julie that wouldn't sound mean or would upset her when they reached the History classroom. "Thanks for carrying my books for me, Frank," she said sweetly as she plucked said books from his arms. "You're a lifesaver!" With a sudden spontaneity that neither teen wanted to think about, Julie leaned forward to drop a gentle kiss onto Franklin's cheek. "My knight in scarlet armour," she murmured into his ear before retreating with a blush.

Franklin was blushing too, just standing there like an idiot and touching the spot where she _kissed_ him with a stupid grin on his face. The five minute warning bell sounded and Franklin had to run to get to the Domestic Science class on time. _Yeah, I'm whipped all right_, he realised with a rueful grin. _What's worse… I think I might like it!_

* * *

"So… should I know the reason for this request, Mrs. Richards?"

Sue looked at the officious little troll that masqueraded as her son's principal and decided that she knew why the school had a slight but persistent bullying problem. The man was a bureaucrat, not a disciplinarian. "Nothing that you need to know about, Mr. Devere," she responded. "There simply has been a… disciplinary incident at home and Franklin is on restriction for two weeks."

Devere nodded and fiddled with his desk furniture, clearly intimidated by Sue's presence. Sue wondered whether the man was intimidated by her powers, her reputation for having a fierce temper or whether the man was simply put off by her appearance. Despite being nearly forty years old, Sue was proud of her beauty and knew that a lot of men were unnerved and disarmed by it. Irrelevantly, she also wondered whether Julie Power was learning the same lesson and that was the reason for her daring new look.

"Um… There isn't any… er… _special_ reason for concern about Franklin's conduct?"

Sue smiled reassuringly. "No, Mr. Devere, there is no reason to believe that any super-villains are involved. Franklin merely has been abusing some of his privileges and so has had them withdrawn, that's all."

"Well, there is nothing particularly difficult about any of these requests, Mrs. Richards. I'm sure that we will be able to keep them without any trouble."

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Devere," Sue replied, unfolding her legs and standing up, smiling slightly at the man's poleaxed reaction to her movements. _Men! This is so easy sometimes!_ "Please feel free to contact my brother, Jonathan, if there are any problems. He will be in the area all week."

Sue swept out of the office and away from the nervous little man. She found herself mentally preparing for today's lessons, three years of teaching having firmly set the habit in her mind. She also found herself rehearsing what she would have to say to Franklin that evening and also wondering what she was going to do about Julie Power.

* * *

"So, are you feeling okay?" Julie shot Franklin an odd look as the blond boy sat down. "I mean, you were pretty badly shaken up by Max this morning," he continued. "I thought you were going to blow him through a wall or something!"

Julie smiled slightly. "It's a lot harder holding back than I thought," she admitted. "Especially when _creeps_ like that talk you down, it is _tempting_ and would be oh-so _easy_!" She smirked at Franklin. "Don't worry, Frank. I'm not going over to the dark side! You were right – he isn't worth it." Julie looked at the… the… whatever on Franklin's plate and swallowed an instinctive nausea. "What _is_ that?"

"This, my dear Ms. Power, is today's 'Mystery Meatloaf Special'," Franklin explained. "It's 2 percent beef, 2 percent chicken, 2 percent lamb and 96 percent 'miscellaneous'."

Julie grimaced. "I cannot _believe_ that you are going to eat it."

"I can't either," Franklin admitted. "I've got half a mind to appeal the 'eating in the cafeteria' part of my grounding on the basis of 'cruel and unusual punishment'."

Julie had to giggle at the expression on Franklin's face. "Maybe you should go vegetarian," she suggested, poking at her Soya-fortified salad for emphasis.

"Can't. I'm a growing boy – Got to have plenty of protein to build my strength!" Franklin thumped a fist against his chest and was more than a little pleased that there was a nicely solid-sounding resonant 'thud'.

Julie hid her desire to giggle at Franklin showing off and looked down to hide her blush. The real reason Julie had been so worried this morning (and Franklin would never know this _ever_, if she had her way) was because she had been fretting about his response to her 'new look', which she had been slowly working towards for several weeks. Was his surprise because he liked it or was it because it was too slutty? She had been worried that listening to the suggestions from Alex's girlfriend, Allison about 'how to make them look' had been a big mistake. Her relief when she realised that his response was 'good' shock was quite overwhelming.

Julie really didn't know where this thing with Franklin was going. She didn't know if she wanted to have more than a close friendship with him. Heck, she wasn't even sure what more they _could_ have; none of the sources she had consulted seemed too clear on that. One thing was certain: She hadn't wanted _boys_, plural, to notice that she was a girl. No, just _one _boy in particular to notice her womanhood rather than just see her as a good friend, a sister-in-arms and partner in the fight against crime. That had worked and it had her walking on air when she realised it had worked in the best possible way.

Of course, what Julie didn't know was that Franklin _knew_ she was a girl, all right, with or without a 'new look'. He knew without any hint of doubt from the moment he saw her in her skin-tight costume for the first time after the Power family's return from its two-year sojourn in Seattle.

* * *

The teachers of Rosewood Junior High were gathered in the sanctuary of the staff room during the lunch break. "So, Margaret, how is Julie doing these days?"

Margaret Power looked up from her coffee to her good friend Susan Richards. It never ceased to amaze her how a woman who could (and, on occasion, _had_) flattened entire city blocks with an exercise of will could look so incredibly _normal_ in a blouse-and-skirt set. "She's fine, Sue. However, I strongly suspect that James will need to invest in a baseball bat to keep the boys away sometime soon. I rather think that, she has decided that it was time to come out of her 'tomboy bookworm' shell."

"Yes," Sue agreed. "I saw her at school today when I was dropping Franklin off."

Margaret sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing exactly to what her colleague was referring. "I blame Alex's girlfriend for that. Allison has a good heart but she is _such_ an extrovert. I think that she basically convinced Julie that more… _provocative_ dress might help her 'make her point'." Margaret shook her head. "I think she's basically showing off and I decided to let her get away with it. I suspect that if you _forbid_ a teen to do something, they will just do it, and more so, to prove their independence. This way, I'll bet she'll get bored with being provocative and tone it down after a few days, especially if she gets a negative reception."

Sue thought that, based on Franklin's reaction, Julie didn't have any reason to worry about a 'negative' reception. If anything, she suspected that James would need a water cannon rather than a bat to keep interested boys from flocking to the Power family's apartment. "I suppose that is just a consequence of being a teenager," Sue mused. "I remember that Johnny used to get more outrageous the more that dad tried to rein him in." The blonde woman shook her head. "So… is there anyone in particular to whom Julie is showing off?"

Margaret sighed and smiled ruefully. "I'm her mother, Sue," she reminded her friend. "I'm just about the _last_ person that would know that. I would suspect that Katie probably knows more than me from watching over Julie's shoulder as she writes in that locked diary of hers!"

"A locked diary?" Sue couldn't believe it.

"Yes, a locked diary. A cliché, I know but it's the sort of cliché that Julie likes thanks to her love-affair with books." Margaret sighed. "I think that there _is_ a boy, though. I'm not sure how serious it is but I do know that Julie has been fretting about something for quite a while now. She's started going onto the apartment's roof late at night 'to be on her own for a while', according to her."

"She does that often?"

"Pretty much every night for the past few months," Margaret said with a slight smile. "She tends to spend the whole evening up there between dinner and bedtime. I think she even does her _homework_ up there! Ah! The pains of the first _serious _crush!"

Sue smiled in agreement whilst silently thinking that she doubted that Julie was actually _on_ the roof for longer than it took to change into her costume and fly off to meet with Franklin. Come to think of it… "Margaret, whilst we're on the subject of emotional teens, I should let you know that Franklin is on restriction for the next two weeks. I have told him that he won't be able to talk to his friends outside of school for the first week, so it means Alex and the other kids won't be able to talk to him over the 'phone or on the internet for that time." Sue sighed and once again regretted that she had worked out Julie's secret identity. "I'd watch Julie's reaction to that, if I were you."

"You think that Franklin was the one Julie was looking to impress?" Margaret asked. "It's possible, I suppose, although they haven't really spent any time together without all the others since we set up that 'double date' so they could keep an eye on Alex and Allison when they went out together a couple of months back."

_Actually, they have been seeing each other every night, but I can't tell you that_, Sue thought. The two were obviously dancing around their feelings for each other – the 'almost-kiss' last night looked spontaneous rather than planned. However, Julie's 'new look' suggested that she was trying to push the boundaries of their relationship.

"I'll keep an eye on her, Sue," Margaret promised. "If she gets extra-sulky from today on, we know that you are on the right track." The red-headed math teacher cocked her head at her friend. "If you are, are we going to encourage this?"

"I think it would be better to _allow_ it but only under close supervision. Frank has inherited the spontaneity and impulsiveness from my side of the family and his father's tendency to obsess and focus _too_ closely on a perceived problem. The combination could be explosive if he _is _interested in Julie."

Margaret nodded in worry. "Julie might be quiet, but there is a lot of passion tied up in there as Jack has occasionally learnt to his cost and she has the intellect to plan to get what she wants. We would definitely have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't start making wild schemes together!" Margaret shook her head and chuckled hollowly. "Raising a child! Why do we do it, Sue?"

Sue laughed. "The joys outweigh the trials, Maggie." Margaret looked at her friend sceptically. Sue shrugged. "Well, that's what Mom always told me!"

* * *

"So, you've got to wait to be picked up? That sucks!" Franklin grinned in agreement at his closest non-superhuman friend, Joe Lawrence, the vice-captain of the school's Computer and Technology Club. "What did you do anyway?"

"Let's just say that my Mom caught me violating curfew," Franklin replied.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "Doing what?" he asked. The African-American boy noticed that Franklin was distracted and followed his friend's gaze to the approaching form of the lovely super-hot _vixen _that Julie Power had abruptly metamorphosed into over the past two weeks. "Or… maybe… doing _whom_?"

Franklin rolled his eyes and mock-punched his friend on the shoulder. "That's plain disgusting, man," Franklin replied with a game grin. "We're just good friends!"

"Maybe," Joe agreed. "But if you want to be more, then I'd move fast because now she's come out as the hottest babe in the Classic Books Club, every straight guy in the school will be homing in on her! Word is that even the Cheer Team is sniffing around to see if she is interested in trying out!" Joe looked up at the sound of a bus's horn. "GTG, man. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya," Frank said and watched as his friend jogged off to the bus that would take him home. He then looked up as Julie walked over. "Hey, Julie."

"Hey, Frank," Julie replied. "Sometimes having to take the last bus to leave the campus to get home bites!" The girl smiled and continued in a nearly-inaudible murmur. "It bites almost as much as having a secret identity! I could fly home in maybe… five seconds? If I didn't mind blowing out all the neighbourhood windows with a sonic boom!"

Franklin shook his head but couldn't help grin in agreement. Sometimes he thought that his parents had made the right choice to 'go public' from the start. For all the problems it caused, it also made some things easier. "No one ever said the game was easy," he said.

Julie nodded and sat down on the wall next to Frank. For a long time the two sat in companionable silence as they watched the buses load up and depart. Without any conscious direction, Franklin found his fingers drifting up, up, up under Julie's zip-up canvas jacket and suddenly they brushed against the bare skin at the small of Julie's back. The girl shivered in reaction and Franklin yanked his hand back as if he had been burnt. "S… Sorry, Julie, that was way out of line of me," he said, looking away in shame.

Julie was thankful he was looking away because her face felt like it was on fire. "No, it's okay, Frank, I know you didn't mean anything by it." _Though I wish you did,_ she added silently

_Oh yes I did! You're driving me crazy, girl!_ Frank sighed and looked back. "No, you're worth more than that," Franklin's tone was angry. "I don't have the right to treat you like a piece of _meat_ the way all those _creeps_ have been all day, leering at you like that!" Franklin was clenching and unclenching his fists and clearly didn't know where to look, especially as Julie had turned towards him, putting the belly cut-out of her shirt on display.

"Frank," Julie sighed. "Frank, seriously, was this a good idea?" she gestured to the source of Frank's torment in a distracted way. "I wanted people to realise there was more to me than the smart kid who can quote classics on demand but I'm getting worried that I'm letting myself get out of character!"

Frank laughed hollowly. "Julie, those who really care about you have always know that there is more to you than a smart kid!"

Julie sighed and looked down. "Yeah, but I want people to realise…" _I want you to realise_… "that I'm a _girl_ too! It might be shallow, but it would be nice to have someone acknowledge that I have a physical as well as an intellectual side!"

"Julie, if you want the truth," Frank said, "that cut-out shirt is _really _distracting. Believe me that there isn't a guy in school who doesn't know that you have a physical side after today!" Julie looked up into Franklin's eyes and couldn't help but giggle a little at his expression. "It _is_ a little too much though, Julie, and it gets all the worst attention for all the wrong reasons."

Julie pouted slightly. "It never seems to make sense!" she sighed, throwing her hands up into the air in annoyance. "Either too much or too little! Concealing or revealing! Now I've gone too far and now people think I'm some kind of…"

Franklin cut her off. "I would never think that," he snapped. "Look, the way I see it, looking good doesn't mean you have to practically be dangling out of your clothes like the worst girls in the school do sometimes. _I'll_ never doubt that you can look good!"

Julie grinned brightly. "You're right, I guess," she said. "I hate this shirt anyway!" she continued, brushing it self-consciously and sending Franklin's mind reeling again. "It's too tight and the hem itches!"

_I'll say it's too tight_, Franklin whimpered silently.

"Mom once said that 'concealing can display more than revealing'," Julie recalled. "Maybe I should talk to her." Julie gave Franklin a spontaneous one-armed hug before hopping off the wall and running off to her bus. "You're a good friend, Frank! See ya tomorrow! Remember! Only six days of purgatory to go!"

Franklin watched Julie run off and realised that her day's clothing choices would haunt his dreams for many a night.

"Wow! She's a fox!" a warm, jocular voice said from behind him.

Franklin looked at his uncle, Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, and raised a mocking eyebrow. "Uncle Johnny, you're _married_… to an alien commando who would do _things _to you if you ever cheated on her."

Johnny laughed. "Just because I've chosen the tastiest dish in the galaxy, doesn't mean that I can't wonder about the other stuff on the menu!" he reminded his nephew. He looked up to watch the bus pull out and noted the redheaded girl waving at Franklin. "There goes the hottest girl in school, if I'm not mistaken! I'm glad to see you took my lessons to heart, Frankie! You're a chip off the ol' Storm block!"

Of all the people with whom Franklin would want to discuss the issue of Julie Power, probably only Victor von Doom ranked below his Uncle Johnny who, even though he was deliriously happily married, still affected the behaviour of a playboy superhero and treated everything lightly. "She's more than hot," was all he could think of to say before following his uncle to his sports coupe, parked nearby.


	3. I Was A Teenage Superhero

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

Censor: T – Just for safety's sake

**Chapter 3 – I Was A Teenage Superhero**

Margaret Power had half-decided that maybe Sue was mistaken.

Julie's behaviour hadn't changed much this evening. The girl was quiet and self-contained, but she had _always _been the way. To tell the truth, _all_ of the children had been quieter and had generally kept their own counsel since the two horrible extraterrestrial-perpetrated kidnapping incidents that led to the family moving away from Virginia. Julie, however, had always been the quietest of the children, stuck as she was between Alex's sometimes-scary level of inquisitive brilliance and Jack's incredibly loud and sometimes-callous attempts to focus attention on himself.

In truth though, the girl _had_ become more secretive and fretful ever since the family had moved back to New York. At first, Margaret had worried that her eldest daughter did not want to move back. However, now she had spoken to Sue, she had to wonder if Julie's worries were more focussed on the son of Margaret's closest friend, who had clearly inherited some of his maternal uncle's easy-going 'devil may care' charm.

Julie _was_ clearly a bit nervous during dinner, continually brushing at her belly cut-out tee shirt and shifting slightly as if the thing were uncomfortable somehow (and Margaret could believe that – it had to be half a size too small!). Julie asked to be excused as soon as possible after the meal and headed off to the girls' room, which would be unoccupied whilst Katie watched the early evening TV shows on the cartoon channels with the other members of the family.

Margaret would later admit that it was slightly thoughtless of her to barge right into the girls' bedroom without knocking but, in her defence, she _was_ worried about Julie and wasn't expecting what she found.

"_MOM!_" Julie shrieked, covering her bra-only clad chest with a hastily-grabbed tee-shirt.

Margaret firmly clamped down on her urge to giggle at her eldest daughter's instinctive and needless modesty. _If only she'd be so restrained in her choices of clothing_, she thought. "Now, now, Julie, it isn't as if I haven't seen you in the altogether before!" she remarked aloud.

Julie sighed and sat down. "Whatever," she sighed, a word that both Power girls had picked up from Valeria Richards who, despite having only just turned 10 years old, sometimes seemed to act a _lot_ older. The girl was surrounded by tee shirts, blouses and other tops, which had been clearly been tried and discarded in a near-frantic way.

"Whatever is wrong, Julie?"

"This," Julie explained, gesturing at the sartorial detritus, specifically the pack of three belly-baring tee shirts that had only just been formally included in Julie's day-wear today.

Julie wasn't initially inclined to continue, so Margaret decided to prompt her. "You didn't get the response you hoped for?" she asked hopefully.

Julie smiled slightly in a secretive but pleased way. "Oh, I got the response I wanted," the girl said before her face fell slightly. "Unfortunately, I also got some responses that I _didn't_ want." The girl sighed and hunched in on herself. "Frank is right! It just isn't _me_."

_Oh, and because Frank doesn't like it, it goes in the bin, hmmm?_ Margaret didn't know whether to be relieved or upset that Sue's theory seemed to be confirmed. "Well, I suppose it does show a bit too much flesh," she murmured aloud. Julie bit her lip but seemed about to say something. "Julie?" her mother prompted.

"Nothing," Julie assured her before almost instantly contradicting herself. "Frank loved it, Mom! Oh, he _said_ that he thought it was too much but when he looked at me… I don't know, but I felt… _in control_!"

Margaret couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, I imagine you did. What's the problem, then dear?"

Julie blushed. "He said it was _distracting_ and, as much as I think he liked the view, I also think that he didn't like _me _wearing stuff like that… at least not in _public_. Besides, I don't think I could handle the way another day with all the other guys looking at me like that!"

_That's what you get for dressing like a rap star's moll, _Margaret thought. Aloud, she was slightly more tactful. "I have to admit that it was a bit… what is the phrase? Oh yes: 'In your face'!"

Julie laughed. "Yeah, that's right."

Margaret thought for a moment as she watched her daughter looking around at her various tops with the air of a girl on a quest. She _could_ use this opportunity to rein Julie in but she had a feeling that doing so would eventually prove to be counter-productive. She had already turned to a fellow teen for advice once before and this… _get up_ was the outcome. Finally, Margaret came to a decision. Sue was right: Better to be aware of the situation and exert some control as to where things were going than try to stop it and invite one or both teens to lash out, possibly self-destructively, in an attempt to assert their independence. She stood up and nudged the door closed with her toe. "There are ways to show confidence and sensuality without exposing yourself, Julie," she said. "Come on, you've got a whole wardrobe here, let's try and find you something."

* * *

"So, you understand why we are putting you under restrictions for this stunt, son?" Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, looked at his eldest child and felt a little bad at having to slap the boy down so hard. However, Sue was right. Franklin's little unmonitored escapades had the potential to go disastrously wrong and it had to end here.

Much to Reed's surprise, Franklin had a suspicion of tears in his eyes. "Yeah, I understand Dad. We… we weren't _trying_ to get hurt or anything! We were just trying to help people and do the right thing!"

"I know you were, son, and I'm proud of you for making that choice." Reed reached out, lengthening his arm to grasp his son's shoulder. "However, as loving and responsible parents, we cannot let you just run off to tackle whatever dangerous situation you find." Reed stood up. "Now, I have discussed this with your mother and if, and this is a big 'if' Franklin, if we are satisfied that you are ready to behave responsibly after these two weeks, then I will talk to Steve Rogers and see if he would be willing to assess your skills. If he is satisfied with your level of readiness, we'll see about an _apprenticeship_ of sorts with one of the Avengers so you can properly prepare yourself for a future in this line of work."

"You would? I could?" Franklin's face brightened in joy. "Dad, that would be great!" Suddenly, with the mercurial speed that Reed had come to expect from all with Storm genes in their makeup, the boy's face fell again as his mood shifted. "Dad… what about J… _Lightspeed_? She's been working with me all this time and it wouldn't be right to leave her to handle things on her own. She… _trusts_ me and I have to live up to that!"

Reed raised an eyebrow and restrained a smirk. Well, it seems that Sue was right that Franklin had developed a bit of a bond with his new-found heroic partner. "Well, I can't make any promises Franklin. If I meet with Lightspeed and she is the good person that you seem to think she that is, then I will definitely consider recommending her to Steve or to Charles Xavier, depending on her preferences and assuming that she wants to pursue a superheroic career further." Reed watched his son's mobile face. Like Johnny and Sue, Franklin was hopeless at hiding his emotions. Reed could tell immediately that Franklin liked this Lightspeed far more than could be explained by simply a partnership in crime fighting. _Whatever choice she makes, you would prefer her at your side, wouldn't you, son?_ Reed thought with a smile.

Reed shook his head and turned his attention to the next most important concern that had arisen from Franklin's recent adventures. "Franklin, can I see your costume, please? The one you have been using?"

Franklin nodded and stood up. With the spoken command 'Costume On', the boy's day clothes were suddenly supplanted by a red-and-black skin-tight costume with reinforced multiple-layer zones around the chest, abdomen, groin and hips. The suit also included metal-framed wrist bracers and knee boots that shone a bright metallic silver. Reed made a meditative 'hum' noise and brushed his fingers across Franklin's shoulders. As the boy had found out for himself, unstable molecules of some kind, probably an electro-reactive 'smart plastic'. Likely insulated from extremes of temperature, reasonable radiation surges and electrostatic effects. Reed could feel the wiring threaded into the material, probably containing sensors and other utility functions. "This doesn't look like human technology, son," Reed said, a statement not a question.

Franklin nodded. "It's extraterrestrial, Dad."

Reed looked up, noting that Franklin had not specified which culture had developed this material. "Wherever did you get it?"

Franklin blushed. "Dad… I'm sorry but there are others besides me and Lightspeed. It isn't just my secret to tell and I've got to ask them before I tell you."

Reed nodded. "Are you satisfied that you can trust this technology?"

Franklin seemed to think for a while. "The species that created this is fairly pacifistic, Dad. They don't even routinely arm their starships. My friends have been using this stuff for five years without any ill effects they have noticed."

_Definitely not the Skrull, Kree or Shi'ar then_, Reed concluded in some relief. _Not that this design is in any way characteristic of any of their technology bases. _"Could you at least give me a name?"

Franklin paused again, clearly conflicted between his love and trust of his father and his oath to his unknown friends. "Kymallian, Dad. They're called the Kymallians."

Reed nodded. The name was unfamiliar to him but the galaxy was vast and there were many cultures that not even the Fantastic Four had encountered to date. "I'll look them up. However, if you are right about how long your friends have used this technology without problems, I suspect that there won't be any significant issues to be concerned about. Five years is a long time for a trap to wait to activate, after all."

Reed turned to leave but was stopped by his son. "Dad?" Reed turned back, noting that the boy had silently dismissed his costume. "Dad… How… How did you know that Mom was the one?" Reed was frozen in shock at first. However, given Sue's story about how their son had been reacting to this 'Lightspeed' and given Johnny crowing about that young lady who had clearly caught Franklin's eye at school (Lightspeed's civilian identity, perhaps?), he realised that maybe this shouldn't have been so unexpected.

Reed pushed Franklin's bedroom door shut and sat down opposite the boy. "That question doesn't have any simple answer, son," he replied. "There many factors in the relationship between your mother and I and they, in turn, have many different levels to them. The first thing you should know is that we would probably have ended up together even if the accident that gave us our powers had not occurred."

Reed sat back in his chair, loosing himself in his memories for a moment before continuing. "You must understand that your mother is a brilliant scientist and mathematician in her own right. Certainly not in the league of myself, Victor or Tony Stark, but, even as a post-graduate student, she was definitely far above the average. I do not flatter her by saying that, if it were not for her input, the fully-reusable lunar spacecraft that I designed would have never become a reality. However, even as we worked together, I found myself first drawn, not to her intellect, but to the power of her _spirit_…"

* * *

Julie Power stood on the roof of the brownstone building where her family's apartment was located and sucked in a deep breath. She didn't know why she was standing here, frankly. It wasn't as if she was going to fly off to Pier 4 for a clandestine meeting with Frank! She wasn't a fool and knew perfectly well that, without Franklin running interference, she would be detected by the defence electronics in the home of the Fantastic Four before she so much as touched the structure.

Maybe, for the first time, she actually came up here because she really _did_ need some space to think and _breathe_ without her family's close, reassuring but sometimes-suffocating presence.

Mom had worked it out. Julie had to admit that she was no expert at deception, especially when her parents were concerned but even so, she thought that she had hidden it better than that. Mom hadn't found out about her powers, oh no. That would have been easier to deal with than _this_! Mom had worked out that Julie was… _attracted_ to Frank! Oh, she was _nice_ about it and even joked with Julie about how handsome the boy was getting as he grew up but that didn't stop this from being a _disaster_! What if she told someone? What if she told _Frank_? Julie would _never_ be able to face him _again_!

_Hey! Stop it! You're acting like a stupid kid!_ Julie reproved herself. She sucked in a breath and tried to stand tall as she looked up at the looming towers of Manhattan Island. _You're not just Julie Power, a silly little teenage girl! You're Lightspeed of Power Pack! You've met aliens, fought the Snarks, the Bogeyman and the robots of Doctor Doom. You've helped Spider Man defeat the Sinister Six! You've been part of adventures that have prevented galaxy-sized star wars! You've saved the world more than once! So, you don't get to come to pieces just because your mom has found out that you have a crush!_

The problem was, though, was it _just_ a crush? Julie didn't know and her mother had freely admitted that there was no certain way of telling other than openness with each other and the passage of time. Julie didn't like uncertainties, a prejudice that she suspected came from her scientist father. However, there didn't seem any way of eliminating those uncertainties right now.

Julie sighed and began to pace, absently noting that her mother's sartorial suggestions, at least, were useful. She was now wearing a silky, powder blue vest top underneath a zip-up magenta hoodie, loose-bottom jeans and red Converse sneakers. The cool thing about the vest was that, even though it covered everything, it really made clear _what_ it covered. There was no doubt that Julie was no longer as flat-chested as she was when the family left for Seattle three years ago. Best of all, if she posed just right, the vest (which _didn't_ go all the way down) would ride up to reveal just a hint of abdomen and the silver sparkle of her piercing.

_Frank is going to love this_, she told herself and then sighed. There was no getting around it – she had it _bad_ for that boy. If she was serious about pursuing this _whatever_ it was, she had to be firm. This wasn't like the novels by the Brontë sisters that she so loved – she couldn't just sit around and wait for her 'handsome gentleman' to come to her. There could be no blushing and hiding behind her hair. She had to make it plain to Frank that she was interested in him and would welcome his interest in turn. _But how?_

Abruptly a bit of advice from Allison came to Julie's mind: 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'. Ridiculous, of course. Not even _Jack_ was that brutish and simple. However, it _did_ give Julie an idea. The first step was to make sure that, even during the grounding, she stayed part of Franklin's out-of-school life.

Julie took her coin purse out of the back pocket of her jeans and put it on the roof. Then she stood back. "Costume on!" she declared. Her clothes suddenly flashed into golden white light and, surrounded by arcing thunderbolts of the same colour, metamorphosed into the magenta-and-black garb of Lightspeed. Julie picked up her purse and stuffed it into one of the hip pouches on her costume. With a brief exercise of will, the girl lifted off of the roof and soared into the air towards a Subway bar at the base of Brooklyn Bridge. She and Frank went there every night before going out on patrol. Maybe it was the high concentration of superheroes in New York or maybe it was just plan, old fashioned New Yorker phlegmatism but the staff at the bar never even batted an eyelid at serving a late supper to two costumed teen superheroes!

* * *

Ben Grimm, aka 'The Thing', was, in many ways, a man at peace with himself. Despite the horrific mutation of his body caused by cosmic radiation exposure during that last, fateful space mission, he was fortunate enough to have a family of sorts, in Reed and Sue Richards, who loved him and saw beyond his physical form. Reed and Sue never once treated him like a freak or a monster and he tried to repay their friendship in any way that he could.

Of course, that business was often a pleasure, especially when someone literally _volunteered_ for being the subject of Clobberin' Time. He was sitting in the den, watching the sports round-up on the wide-screen plasma TV set when the screen changed to show the intruder alert icon. Ben grabbed the remote and quickly, despite his outsize fingers, tapped out a series of commands, shrinking the TV picture into a corner and calling up the CCTV pictures for the appropriate area of the water-side deck of the pier. Nothing! There was no indication on the screen of anything untoward… _Wait a cotton-pickin' minute!_ What was _that_? A… a _rainbow_? Sparkling on the screen and slowly fading away to suggest some kind of energy effect but it was definitely there. Ben looked at the situation displays and, as he expected, the microwave radar had shown a single human-sized object drop out of the sky, land briefly on the decking and then fly away again. The figure, definitely female according to the recorded video, had kept out of the cameras' direct line of sight but Ben saw it put something down on the decking before flying off again.

Ben briefly considered alerting his team mates but he knew that Sue and Reed were having a night with Frankie who, if Match-Head was to be believed, had been tugging at the ol' apron strings recently. It was bound to happen eventually but Ben knew that his friends would need to handle the boy with care to ensure that these first moves to independence didn't land him in trouble.

After setting up the portable scanner and the 'bomb box' (a nearly-indestructible container for either detonating or disintegrating unwanted 'gifts') in the kitchen, Ben carefully opened the rear door. With surprising agility and care for a being of his size, he walked out to the object sitting on the decking. It was a Subway take-out bag! Ben expected many things but not this. What really got his mind in a whirl was the small sticky note attached to the outside. 'For Franklin, Please deliver. Thx.'

Ben boggled at this for a moment. There were few Subway delivery-persons that he knew of who could fly and even fewer who would have dropped off an order without stopping to pick up payment first, so this was obviously something someone bought as a gift. With the natural paranoia that came from two decades of being targeted for destruction by a certain tin-headed megalomaniac, Ben submitted the still-warm package to a full scan, confirming an absence of explosives, poisons, any significant concentration of metals. There was no sign of nano-machines or any pathogens or other biochemical hazards present (ignoring the salt and fat levels and, frankly, Ben always thought that a real man could handle that without too much trouble). If it was safe… well, Ben wasn't the kind of man to keep a kid from his sustenance!

_So, Benjy-boy, it comes to this at last! Reduced to a take-out delivery boy!_ With a rueful chuckle, the orange-pebbled giant took the package upstairs to Frankie's room.

Ben knocked on Frankie's door and opened it to hear Stretch concluding some kind of lecture, one that left Suzie looking a little red in the face and Frankie looking unusually thoughtful for a kid who usually took after Match-Head a bit _too_ much. "In conclusion Franklin, the 'one', as you put it, is not merely someone to whom you are _physically_ attracted. It is someone with whom you can imagine spending an eternity – someone who challenges you on an intellectual level, comforts and reassures you on an emotional and spiritual level and with whom you have compatible goals and standards. There is no 'quick fix' and no 'easy answers' I'm afraid son. It is just something that take time and openness in communication… Ah, Ben! What can we do for you? Is that beef I can smell?"

Ben grinned at his friends. "Since when was you the Love Doctor, Stretch?" the big man teased. "Has Frankie got his eye on someone?"

"Possibly," Reed agreed cheerfully.

"_DAD_!" Franklin's wail of protest was all the confirmation that Ben needed.

"Maybe she's a cute little dame who flies on a rainbow and delivers take-out door-to-door?" Ben presented the package to Franklin who, with an odd expression on his face, unwrapped it on the desk in front of him (ignoring his mother's wince at him putting a potentially greasy item on the wooden table-top).

"Beef, lettuce, tomato and cucumber with honey mustard," Franklin muttered, almost to himself. "Fruit cookie and still orange juice." The boy started to laugh.

"Where did this come from?" Sue asked, looking concerned.

"Like I say, a cute little redheaded gal in a red-purple suit who flies on a rainbow!" Ben looked at Frankie. "Is she the one that inspired you to get your ol' man waxin' lyrical about love?"

Franklin tilted his head back and shook his head, still laughing. "This is the order I got every night when I was out patrolling with Lightspeed!" he announced. "It's her way of showing that she's thinking of me!" The boy was incredibly relieved at that realisation and it settled the question of his feelings in both Ben and Reed's minds.

Sue's thoughts were on something else. "Lightspeed was here?" she gasped. She jumped to her feet and rushed out.

"Are you sure it was her, son?" Reed asked.

"I'm sure," Franklin said. He pointed to the symbol under the writing on the sticky note. It was an open-topped square with an upward-pointing triangle inside. "That's her symbol!"

* * *

Susan Richards raced out onto the rear deck, her costume forming around her in response to her tapping out a code on the keypad of her cellphone. As soon as the skin-tight midnight-blue and white fighting garb of The Invisible Woman was fully formed Sue called up an invisible flying force disc and soared up into the air. She looked around her and saw no sign of Julie or the distinctive rainbow trail left behind her as she flew. Doubtless the girl knew how to mask her location if needed. However, Sue had an advantage that most pursuers would not have. _She knew where she would be going_! Willing herself invisible, she directed her flying disc towards the neighbourhood that hosted the Power family.

As she approached, Sue began to search the skies, looking for some indication of Julie's presence. After a few moments, she saw something airborne and approaching the Powers' brownstone, but it _wasn't Julie_. It was a blonde male in a black costume with a strange moving white pattern on the arms and legs and what looked like polythene wings on the bottom of the arms. He was carrying an Asiatic-looking girl in his arms as he soared slowly and silently through the air.

Slowly but certainly, Sue crept forward, ready to strike if this newcomer was a threat to the Powers or any other innocent. As she watched, the airborne pair dropped silently to the roof of another apartment building several blocks to the north of the Powers' brownstone. As they did so, the colour of the male's costume faded into a black-and-white pattern stylistically similar to Julie's. He put the girl down lightly onto the rooftop and took her hands in his in a slightly self-conscious way. Sue crept closer and was close enough to hear the girl speak. "Thanks for the lift home, Alex!"

Sue was so shocked that she almost lost concentration and had to focus desperately to stop her flying disc from vanishing. Now she was this close, those words combined with the sight of the young man were enough to confirm in her mind that this was Alex Power, Julie's older brother!

_'Curiouser and curiouser,' said little Alice_, Sue thought. What had she stumbled into here? She had never seen any indication before that James and Margaret were carriers of the recessive X-Factor gene that would lead to mutant children. Of course, she had never bothered to check! Did all the Power kids have superpowers?

Setting a course back for home, Sue soared off, realising that she was now custodian of _two_ secrets! _This week just gets more and more complicated every minute_, she thought with an annoyed sigh. She was so preoccupied that she had forgotten her initial intention to grab Julie and drag her back to Pier 4 so she and Reed could find out exactly what the girl's intentions were… Assuming that she had figured that out herself, of course.

* * *

The reason that Sue didn't see Julie was because the girl was burning off some excess energy. She rarely had the opportunity to _really_ cut loose with her powers; Right now, she was dealing with all the emotional turmoil of the day and of her slowly burgeoning realisation that she _like_ liked Franklin by flying as fast as she could through the centre of Manhattan. She was slaloming through the skyscrapers and taking the corners with fast high-gee turns. She finished by flying towards the World Trade Centre and flying a fast series of loops around the five new towers built on the site forever known as 'Ground Zero', finishing with a spiralling ascent up Freedom Tower, briefly wrapping it in a shimmering rainbow of ionised air.

Friday's most recent upgrades to Julie's SmartSuit had been of great use to the girl when flying. The suit now boasted an omni-directional radar that warned her of other airborne objects in proximity to her. The suit also read up compass heading, angle-of-attack, altitude and speed onto the inside of her goggles, which functioned like a fighter jet's Heads-Up-Display. Right now, the display showed a proximity warning and a cue to show her where it was relative to her.

Julie dropped into a hover and turned to see the ABC-7 News helicopter hovering not more than 100 feet away from her. She could see the news reporter in the co-pilot's chair talking into his microphone, no doubt reporting on her impromptu air display, and she noted the gyro-stabilised camera mount on the aircraft's side was pointed unerringly at her.

Julie's first instinct was to get as far away from the camera as she could as quickly as she could. However, a second, considerably more mischievous thought entered her mind. After all, it wasn't as if anyone would _recognise_ her with her mask on! Why shouldn't she have some fun? It isn't as if it would _hurt _anyone!

Julie waved at the camera, posing coyly in mid-air before launching away into propelled flight again. Keeping her speed low so that the camera operator could track her easily, she soared up into the air over the tip of Manhattan Island. Julie slowly curved up and over in a dramatic loop before suddenly tightening the loop and flipping up-and-over in a second upward curve before descending again to meet the still-sparkling base of her trail. She slowly drifted away and grinned at the huge valentine's heart that hovered in the sky for a few seconds before the rainbow-coloured trail of ionised air dissipated. _That's for you, Frank!_ Julie told herself. She turned back to the nearby helicopter to give the airborne journalists a bow and then shot vertically away at her full acceleration.

Julie locked her eyes onto the pale half moon hovering high over Manhattan Island as her point of reference as she poured all of her will into her flight. Alex had long theorised that the only limit to Julie's acceleration was her will and right now her will was strong! She wanted to fly the way she had never flown before because, starting now, she was going to take charge of her life! Up and up Julie soared on a ionised trail of rainbow light, her eyes still locked onto the Moon and suddenly she visualised herself standing on the dusty grey surface looking at the flag planted there by men of her grandfather's generation some forty years ago…

Julie was startled at the audible warning that the SmartSuit suddenly screeched in her ears. Her HUD showed an altitude of over 35,000 feet! Franklin had told her that his Uncle Ben had warned him of something called 'Tunnel Vision' where pilots would become so focussed on something other than their instruments that they might fly themselves into trouble. However, she never thought that it would happen to her!

Julie damped off her acceleration as fast as she could and dropped into a hover, noting with relief that her SmartSuit had automatically deployed her emergency oxygen mask. The suit was capable of handling a lot worse conditions than this but she felt a terrible absolute cold on the exposed skin of her hands and face for a few seconds before the SmartSuit responded by deploying gloves and a full face mask. Temporarily safe, she maintained her hover, looking around her. She noted with wonder the incredible _clarity_ of the air at an altitude of seven miles. Looking down, she saw _clouds_, the cities of New York and New Jersey and even aeroplanes heading into JFK and LaGuardia airports! Was that the ocean liner the _Queen Mary 2_ on the horizon, steaming towards New York?

Julie looked up again at the Moon and swore to herself that she would talk Friday into making her a fully-pressurised version of her SmartSuit one day, one capable of sustaining her in the fully extra-atmospheric flight that she _knew_ she was capable of achieving. One day, she would go to the Moon and beyond under her own power and see the sights she had previously only seen in Jack's books about the space program. One day, she would aim herself out into the night and try to _really_ fly as fast as she could so as to settle once and for all if she really deserved the name _Lightspeed_.

For now, it was time to go home. Julie tipped her body forwards and pushed herself into a dive, taking a classic swan dive posture as she began to descend in a free-fall, rapidly reaching terminal velocity for a body of her mass and shape. Julie gloried in the sensation, although she was grateful for the bubble of ionised air around her body – she doubted that she would enjoy a 200mph slipstream!

As Julie descended through 15,000 feet, she began to bleed in her power again to slow her descent. Suddenly, a strange impulse claimed her. Why should she try to _slow_ her descent? Instead she began to accelerate, turning her free-fall into a power-dive. She watched as the speed indicator on her HUD began to increase again.

_250… 300… 350mph!_

Julie remembered that evening at Yankee Stadium, some four years ago now, when the family had first come to New York City. That night, to ensure an old man would hit one last homer, she had, in Alex's opinion, broken the sound barrier. _Seven hundred and fifty miles an hour! I can do it!_ Julie thought, pressing her arms against her side and pushing her powers still harder.

_500… 550… 600mph!_

Julie noted the low altitude warning on her HUD coolly, doing frantic mental calculations as her altitude dropped below 2,000 feet and the solid-looking water of New York Harbour raced up to meet her. Arching her back, Julie pulled up, still accelerating for all she was worth, in the end levelling off at just 20 feet above the water's surface.

Still she pushed herself to go faster. _I can do it! I can do it!_

_725… 738… 750mph…!_

A doughnut-shaped cloud of water vapour briefly condensed around Julie's waist as she pushed through the moment strongest aerodynamic resistance by sheer force of will. _I can do it! I __**did**__ it!_

_**TA-TOOOOOOMMM!!!**_

"What in the blue blazes?" Ben Grimm spluttered, having dropped his beer in shock at the sound. He rushed out of the Den onto the raised upper deck that ran around the former warehouse building that was Pier 4's residence building to see something small racing low along the East River at an incredible speed, throwing up two massive rooster tails of water in its wake. Ben's eyes widened as he realised that, whatever that was, it was had gone _way_ supersonic. It was at that moment that he saw the rainbow-coloured trail the object was leaving in its wake. "Go for it, kid," the former test pilot said with a throaty, grumbling laugh.

Julie's HUD was reading a steady 835mph as she flashed down the length of the East River, flashing underneath Brooklyn Bridge and under Manhattan Bridge just a second later! Julie pulled a hard left turn to stay over mid-channel as the Sanitation Department's depot flashed by to her left followed by East River Park. Ahead, she could see the United Nations building and the long tongue of land that was Franklin D. Roosevelt Island. _Weren't there hospitals there?_ Julie looked behind her and, for the first time, saw the twin shock-waves that her slipstream was throwing up. She didn't want to cause the hospital patients any more trouble (over that which they were already experiencing) and she certainly didn't want to swamp any boats on the river.

Pulling up slightly, Julie bled off her speed, and noted something new on her costume. Panels on the back of her boots folded open like an aircraft's air brakes and she felt the back of her costume shifting and changing to do the same. Julie's airspeed dropped down through 300mph as she soared in between the gothic tops of the pylons of the Queensboro Bridge.

Julie slowed down to a hover, her oxygen mask, gloves and face-mask folding back as her costume returned to its normal configuration. She found herself panting and her heart pounding like a drum, not with exertion but with a strange _exultation_! Her whole body was tingling! Perhaps, just for the first time, she had a small clue of what she could _really_ do if she tried!

* * *

That night, Julie found herself receiving her just punishment for her self-indulgence. Oh, no one had been _hurt_ (although a lot of people had been bowled over or had been frightened out of their wits by the sonic boom). However, all the news channels showed footage of her 'sky-writing' a message of sorts and also had footage of her supersonic flight along the East River.

Julie's mother made a tut-tut noise in disapproval. "The government should really do more to stop these super-powered folk from causing disruption like that!" she remarked absently as she watched the sky-writing sequence again. "That girl must have a _really_ troubled home life if she needs to show off like that! I'd certainly not let any daughter of mine gallivant around in that way!"

Julie slouched down as low as she could, wanting to sink into the couch and vanish from sight forever. Only _one thing_ could make this worse… Yep! Right on schedule! Jack leaned over to her. "Yeah, Julie," he said with an infernal grin. "You'd think that _she'd_ know better!" Julie growled inarticulately and swatted at her vile younger brother. Jack dodged back with a mocking laugh. Combined with Alex's disapproving glare and Katie's expression of mixed awe and mischief, Julie realised that this all promised that she had a difficult few days ahead.

…

"Woah…!" was all Johnny Storm could say as he saw the same footage as had captured the attention of the Power family. Reed quirked an eyebrow, doubtless trying to calculate the energies that the girl known as 'Lightspeed' could control to achieve such feats. Sue just pressed her lips together and realised that, if Franklin _did_ pursue a relationship with Julie, the two of them would probably end up daring each other to try just about _anything_!

"Quite a girl you've got for yourself, kid," Ben Grimm told his godson in an approving tone, clapping a huge hand on the teenage boy's shoulder.

"That she is, Uncle Ben," Franklin said with a grin. "That she is!"


	4. Homework Night at Pier 4

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

Censor: T – Just for safety's sake

**Chapter 4 – Homework Night at Pier 4**

It had been a hard week for both Julie and Franklin. They hadn't realised how completely their lives had come to revolve around each other until, suddenly, it wasn't permitted for them to meet on their own terms. Of course, they could meet at school, but there were things that they couldn't mention there and, anyway, the presence of over 200 of their peers naturally dampened down their freedom of expression. The stress from these limits quickly began to tell on both teens' behaviour.

The day after her speed run down the East River, Alex had spoken to Julie, _severely_, about decorum and the importance of discretion in the use of their powers. He was amazed (and more than a little horrified) to receive a tongue-lashing in return that verged on a rant, given its length and detail. Julie's voice reached such a pitch and volume that both their parents were attracted to the noise and had to separate them for fear the girl might actually become physically violent. In retrospect, Julie was more than a little relieved that they arrived during her lengthy dissertation on the subject of hypocrisy and the need for free self-expression for a healthy psyche. She didn't want to think of the consequences if they had arrived during the part when she was discussing Alex's own misuse of his powers for his own personal benefit and convenience.

After that display, Katie had been cowed to the point of silence around Julie. Alex himself seemed to be treading on eggshells that week and always ducked into a room if he met Julie walking the other way down the hallway at home (Jack teased Alex for being 'Julie-whipped'). Jack shut up too after receiving a super-fast wedgie for whispering something to his elder brother about 'time of the month'. Allison didn't help in the slightest by finding the whole situation hysterically funny.

It wasn't really her family that was the problem, Julie quickly realised. The problem was that she no longer had the escape route of venting to Franklin. Even if he didn't have any advice to offer, he could always make her feel better in some way, even if only with a quick, sympathetic hug. Lacking that safety valve, she found that she _did_ have the stereotypical redheaded quick temper and a tongue as sharp as a razor (as several of the more bitchy girls at school quickly found out).

Franklin found that several things added to his personal stress levels. Whilst he was relieved that Julie never wore _those_ revealing clothes again, the wardrobe that she _had_ finally settled on did not do his blood pressure any favours. There was something about the way the jeans highlighted her hips that caught and held his eyes (to the point where he had walked into people he hadn't noticed). The hint of bare skin revealed by her loose vest swishing back and forth as she walked was triggering just a strong reaction – he had to continually restrain an urge to lift up the hem of her vest and stroke her belly!

It didn't help that his Uncle Ben and Uncle Johnny had put aside their two decade-long interpersonal conflict to unite in teasing him about redheads and their stereotypical characteristics (most notably, _passion_). Lacking any way of getting away from his kin, he actually found himself isolating himself in his room. He would spend hours sitting in front of his PC and scowling at the security lock-out graphic on the Instant Messenger program window, desperately reining in an urge to try to use his powers to reformat his grounding out of history. Julie didn't make his effective imprisonment any easier by being seen circling high above Pier 4 on several occasions.

What really haunted Franklin was what he regarded as the most important part of his Dad's impromptu lecture on finding 'the one'. "_The one most important criteria in finding a life-mate, son, is that she must be, first and foremost, your best friend. You must feel comfortable with her and able to communicate with her on any matter… You will find that your thoughts stray to her, not in the narrow focus of obsession, but in strange, random ways… Passion fades in time, son, but you will find that you never stop caring about her, caring enough that you can easily put her happiness before your own or, paradoxically, are driven to the most extreme selfish feelings by her._" Those words were making him a bit nervous because _Julie _was his best friend and he _did_ find himself looking at things and thinking of how Julie would react or what she would say or think about it.

All in all, the final day of the heaviest restrictions on Franklin could not have come as more a relief to either teen.

* * *

"So, today is Liberation Day!" Julie announced brightly as she and Franklin sat on the wall near the school bus stop, waiting for their respective buses to start embarking for the journey home.

"Well, almost," Franklin replied. "I'm still grounded for another week, but at least I can see my friends out of school and go out at lunchtime to get _real_ food to eat."

Julie personally didn't think of Franklin's dietary choices as 'food' and been trying to persuade him to eat more healthily. However, that wasn't relevant to the current discussion so she put that thought aside. "Even that will be a blessing," Julie reminded her best friend. "It has been _really_ hard not being able to just talk with you freely, Frank. I don't think that I've even been doing so well with my homework without having you to bounce ideas off of!"

"Yeah, I've missed being able to just _talk _to you too," Franklin replied. "It just isn't the same here! There is always someone around and the gossip network is just too darn fast! If it isn't Dyle and his band of idiots twittering about 'lovebirds', it's Joe and the other guys at the Comp-Tech Club asking me about my 'girlfriend'!"

Julie looked searchingly at Franklin for a long moment before replying. "Would that be such a terrible thing?" she asked quietly and gently. "Me being your girlfriend, I mean?"

There was a long pause as blue and green eyes met and spent a long time measuring each other. "No," Franklin said. "No, it wouldn't be a bad thing at all. But it isn't something that I want to be rushed into by outside pressure, Julie. You're worth more than that."

With a start, the two teens realised that their hands had clasped together sometime during the conversation and, with a mutual blush, they let go and looked away. "No, I wouldn't want to rush into it either," Julie said at last.

The two were silent for a while again before Franklin tried to move the conversation back to less emotionally-charged matters. "Anyway, I should have finished my homework about seven tonight. Talk to you on-line?"

Julie looked at Franklin and he suddenly realised that he didn't know whether he liked or feared the slightly mysterious smile she was offering him. "Maybe," she said. "We'll have to see, won't we?"

Franklin stood up as his bus rolled up to the pick-up point. He squeezed Julie's shoulder and smiled at her before walking away. _Now, what in the name of all the six soul gems did she mean by that?_

* * *

Margaret raised an eyebrow as she watched her daughter, who had suddenly regained her equanimity in the last 24 hours, pack her school books into her old denim school backpack (dating from elementary school). "Going somewhere, dear?"

Julie jumped a little and, once again, wondered if her mom had stealth powers of some kind. "Um… no, I'm just setting up to do my homework." Margaret's expression encouraged her daughter to elaborate. "I'm doing it up on the roof," Julie explained.

"Really? That's the first time you've done that in a week or so! Any reason why you changed your habits for a few days?"

Julie shrugged and smiled gamely, not meeting her mother's oh-so-knowing eyes. "No reason, really," she replied. "It just didn't seem worth it." The girl turned back to the battered old pack to fasten its straps. "I haven't been doing so well since then, though," she added truthfully, "so I decided to see if doing it up there was part of my 'magic formula', if you know what I mean."

Margaret sighed and gestured towards the door. "Well, if you think it might help, dear," she said, despairing again of ever understanding the adolescent female mind. "I just want you down before eight, okay? It gets cold at night, even in summer, and I don't want you stumbling around on the roof in the dark!"

…

Franklin sat back in his chair at his desk in his room and stared at the Literature homework sitting in front of him. _This is just the sort of thing that Julie's good at_, he thought morosely. _Just my stinkin' luck that this essay has to fall due when I can't talk to her as I write it!_

…

Sue Richards raised an eyebrow as the small LCD monitor on the door of the refrigerator showed the security alert icon. She walked over the panel and pressed a control giving her access to the sensor displays. According to the radar, there was a small, human-sized object hovering at an altitude of just nine feet over the rear decking of the pier. With a slight smile, Sue reflected that she had a very good idea what, or rather _who_ that was. She made sure that the kitchen was free of its worst post-supper clutter and walked to the back door. She opened the door and walked out onto the water-side deck. "Hello, Lightspeed."

Julie Power, dressed in her magenta-and-black costume, slowly drifted down onto the deck, her rainbow-coloured energy field dispersing as she did so. "Hello, Mrs. Richards," she replied. "You said that I could see Frank again after a week."

Sue raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile at the slight, unconscious intimacy of the girl using the contraction 'Frank'. "I said that I'd _consider_ it," Sue reminded her. "What do you want to talk him about?"

Much to Sue's surprise, the girl swung a battered-looking denim backpack off of her shoulders and held it up as if for an inspection. "I thought that he'd like to do his homework with me tonight," she announced.

Sue blinked in surprise for a moment, not able to keep her complete stupefaction from being reflected on her face. "Homework?" she repeated stupidly.

"Yeah!" Julie seemed completely unaware of how she had totally wrong-footed Franklin's mother. Of course, there was the possibility that she _did_ know it and was skilled at schooling her expression. That, Sue reflected, wasn't exactly out-of-the-question, given Margaret's comments about her intelligence and the skills that the girl would need to survive three siblings. "Frank and I always find that our homework is easier and turns out better if we do it together!" Julie completed with an ingenuous smile.

Sue smiled again and nodded to the girl, acknowledging her unequivocal victory. "Really? That's interesting. Well, I'm sure he'll welcome the company and the help! Literature isn't exactly his best subject."

Julie rolled her eyes, although the goggles on her mask hid that from Sue's view. "It would help if he didn't wait until the last moment to do homework in his weaker subjects," the girl said with a certain, unconsciously parental air.

Sue stepped aside and gestured for the younger superhuman to enter the residence. _You know, you really have got it bad_, she said silently. _You're already looking after him! How long before you start organising his desk or brushing down his jackets?_ Noting that this was how it started with her and Reed, Sue followed her young guest inside.

"So, this is Lightspeed, huh?" Johnny was saying, blocking the girl's path out of the kitchen. "You know, you are quite the hot one! I can see why you caught Frankie's eye!" Julie blushed at the older man's charming grin and frankly complimentary gaze.

Sue, for reasons of her own, found herself not wanting Johnny to embarrass their houseguest. "She's come to help Franklin with his homework, Johnny," she announced to her brother. "I think _he'd_ appreciate it if you _didn't_ give her the third degree!"

Johnny, typically for him, missed the point and shot Sue a look as if he were a puppy-dog she had just smacked for doing a whiz on the carpet. "Don't be like that, Suzie! I just wanted to get to know my nephew's girlf… _hey_!" Sue goosed her brother with an invisible Ping-Pong ball-sized projectile and glared at him in a way that informed him that now was most assuredly _not_ the time for him to cause trouble, no matter how good his intentions.

"I'm sure Lightspeed will submit to your Q and A when she is good and ready, Johnny," Sue said coldly. "However, if you are bored tonight and want something to occupy your time, we have a garage just across the street filled with miscellaneous parts that need cataloguing."

Johnny, realising that he was on the verge of losing the rest of his evening, fled. However, before he vanished from sight, he had one last parting shot to offer. "Remember this, Red: Make him beg before you let him make out with you! It makes us guys feel _so_ much better about it!"

Julie blushed at the thought of doing… _that_ with Franklin and felt the familiar desire to just melt into the floor and vanish. She turned around to find that her host had the most furious look on her face and seemed on the verge of exploding. "Oh that… _brother of mine_!" Sue snapped. "He is _impossible_!"

Julie restrained an urge to giggle. "Yeah, he's obviously a wild one. He reminds me of Ja… of Mass Master, my younger brother. Still, he might be utter obnoxious creep but, you know what? I'd miss him if he wasn't around!"

Sue stared at Julie in surprise for several moments before her mouth started curving upward into a smile. She nodded in agreement and both of them started laughing. Later on, she would realise that it was at this point that she accepted Julie as a potential part of their family and not just as the girl with whom her son had been running around.

…

Franklin was trying again to get into the mind of the late, great Thomas Hardy when someone knocked at the door of his bedroom. "Yeah?"

The door opened to reveal his mother, who was smiling as if she had a secret that she was about to reveal. "Franklin, you have a visitor," she announced.

Franklin turned around to look as his mother stepped aside to reveal a _very_ familiar figure in magenta and black. "Um… Hi, Frank," Julie… no, _Lightspeed_ said. "I… thought that you might need some help with your Literature essay and I thought that you could help me with my math in return!"

Sue couldn't help but smile nostalgically at the speed at which her son was on his feet and standing in front of his visitor. Franklin visibly had to restrain himself from hugging Julie, satisfying himself with grabbing her hands instead and dragging her over to his desk. Sue noted both teens' broad smiles with a strange pang in her heart. "I'll… leave you two to it," she said. She turned to go, getting the feeling that the two teens were probably no longer aware of her. At the last moment, she turned back with an afterthought. "Keep the door open, okay?" Silence; the two were communicating something silently and Sue scowled. "I said: _Keep the door open,_ _okay_?" she repeated, much more loudly.

Franklin and his visitor visibly jerked and looked up at Sue. "What? Oh! Sure Mom!"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Richards! You can trust us!"

Sue sighed. _And I am going to have to do that, aren't I, Julie?_

"_No, no way Jose! Absolutely not, Lightspeed! That's crazy! There is no way that Hardy could have _ever_intended that interpretation!_"

"_I'm not making this up, Frank! This is a valid interpretation of the context! If you look at the start of the Fourth Phase, it is practically spelt out!_"

Reed Richards homed in on the loud voices of his son and an unidentified young woman coming from the open door of the boy's bedroom. He walked up to the door and looked in. He couldn't help but grin. A redheaded young lady wearing a magenta-and-black masked costume was sitting in Franklin's desk chair, balancing a clipboard with notes on her crossed legs whilst Franklin was reclining on his bed, surrounded by sheets of foolscap notepaper. Both were holding battered and well-thumbed copies of _Tess of the d'Urbevilles_.

"Look, Lightspeed," Franklin was saying, gesturing wildly, "just because the man spelt it out doesn't mean that he was flagging up his objective for the story! There _is_ something called 'misdirection' you know!"

The costumed girl, Lightspeed, evidently, laughed. "Frank, we are dealing with Thomas Hardy here, not Agatha Christie! He was a counter-moralist, not a mystery writer!"

"He was a counter-moralist according to _your thesis, _Lightspeed, we still haven't established that his intention was… oh, hi Dad!"

Reed watched as Lightspeed swung around on the desk chair with a slightly guilty expression on her partially-masked face. "Oh! Um! Hi, Dr. Richards!" the girl in a slightly surprised tone.

"I hope that you two aren't getting into mischief," Reed said in a casual tone, as if he were _used_ to his son doing homework with costumed super-girls…

_Which, come to think of it, _Julie thought, _he might be_.

"No, we were just discussing whether Hardy thought that Tess had it coming or whether he was decrying the moral standards of the age," Franklin replied with an easy grin.

Reed shook his head. "_Tess_ wasn't on the reading list when I went to high school," he remarked. "It was still considered either too risqué or _not risqué enough_ by most teachers." He shook his head. "Well, in either case, please keep it down. We can hear you two in the Den. Also, I suspect that Valeria is wearing her iPod in her room so she can focus on _her_ homework rather than yours."

"Um… we could just close the door, Dad," Franklin suggested, his eyes wide and guileless.

Reed quirked an eyebrow. "I might be old, Franklin, but I am not _senile_. Keep the noise down _and_ keep the door open."

As Reed walked away, he had to swallow his urge to laugh at the hissed comments being exchanged in the room behind him. "_Frank! I can't believe you said that you idiot!_"

"_Hey! Don't tell me you weren't _thinking _it!_" Lightspeed's response was a high-pitched 'Eep', signifying a young lady caught out.

Reed shook his head and continued on his way back to the Den with a pleased smile. _Intellectually challenging and emotionally comfortable! Those two will go far indeed!_

* * *

Julie had broken off the Hardy-cramming to go down to the kitchen and get a glass of something to drink. She was confident that she had at least given Franklin enough of an _opinion_ that he could write an essay on the subject, whether or not she agreed with his conclusions. Next up was their math homework and she hoped that Frank would be able to help her turn the meaningless squiggles of calculus notation into something that she could understand.

As she sipped a glass of water, Julie thought back to Dr. Richards' visit and Frank's suggestion on how to keep the noise down. Completely against her intention, her mind began to imagine just how it wouldbe if they had the residence to themselves and they were both able to get on the bed and spend ages just _kissing_. Maybe then she could find out just exactly what those wandering hands of Frank's, which she had noticed trying to steal a touch time after time at school, would do if they had the privacy they needed…

Julie was standing there like a sun-struck loon, her face slightly flushed, her breathing a little rapid and her eyes dilated when a voice announced. "So, _you_ are young Franklin's paramour, hmm?"

Julie practically jumped out of her skin at the strangely-accented voice and barely avoided dropping her water glass. Instinctively she swung around, dropping into a crouch and raised a hand, powering up a kinetic blast.

"Hmm. Not a _bad_ reaction time, but if I intended harm, little human, you would _already_ be dead. You must sense the foe _before_ they wish make themselves known, not _after_."

The woman in casual but extremely well-fitting clothes standing in the kitchen doorway was not human. Oh, she was _humanoid_ but she wasn't _human_. The leaf-green skin, the outsize, pointed ears, bulging ridges on her chin and the mauve-on-yellow eyes identified her as a Skrull, a race of polymorphic reptilian sentients that dominated a significant portion of the Milky Way galaxy. The alien woman cocked her head and sneered at Julie, who was still in a fighting posture. "Of course, I wonder if your… _distraction_… might be more to do with what you would _prefer_ to be doing with young Franklin tonight rather than study with him. Am I right?" she asked in an arrogantly insulting tone of voice.

Julie scowled and straightened up, recognising this interloper as Lyja Storm, aka 'Laser-Fist', the alien wife of Frank's Uncle Johnny. "That… Mrs. Storm… is _none_ of your business," Julie spat, meeting insulting tone with insulting tone. She knew enough about warrior races from her time talking with Friday about what was out there to know that they did not respect politeness when they had offered a challenge, perceiving it as weakness.

"If you intend to befriend my nephew… or more… it _becomes_ my business, stripling," Lyja purred. The statuesque alien woman stalked over to Julie and began to pace in front of her, clearly measuring her up. "Little more than a child," she murmured as if Julie were an animal and unable to understand her words. Lyja took Julie's chin in her hand and angled the girl's head up so she could look directly at her face. "Still… she seems healthy enough and might be acceptable, if properly _trained_." There was a nasty emphasis on that word that carried the idea of training a dog or a horse rather than teaching a person.

Julie snarled in response to the Skrull woman's clear insult and slapped her hand away from her. "You will keep your hands _off_ of me," she snapped. "The choice as to whether to accept my company is Franklin's, Mrs. Storm, and maybe his parents'! Not _yours_!" Julie glared up at the tall alien. "And the next time you touch me without permission, they will be sizing you up for a prosthetic hand! Is that _clear_?"

Lyja's smile was terrible to behold but she genuinely seemed pleased at something. "Anger at insults," she said in an approving tone. "Caution. Wariness even. Focus upon and evaluation of a potential threat, but not _fear_. Excellent. You are not as new to the way of the warrior as Susan clearly thinks." Lyja stepped back, opening space between her and Julie and cocked her head in seemingly-genuine curiosity. "You also do not seem to be affected by the presence of one from beyond your world."

Julie nodded. "You're hardly the first _alien_ I've met," she replied, putting an emphasis on the word 'alien' to imply that it was hardly a novel thing. "I've quite a reputation amongst some species out there!"

"Oh? Do tell?"

Julie raised an eyebrow. "Ever heard of the Snar… the _Zn'rx_? They have good reason to fear me and others of my family."

Lyja snorted. "The Zn'rx? Marauding nomadic _vermin_, barely worthy of being called pirates, let alone an Empire! Still, for all their lack of honour or any other worthwhile quality, they are capable enough fighters when roused. You have faced them in battle? Interesting!"

"More than once," Julie announced, raising her chin proudly. "They have learnt, in the ashes of defeat, that the skills and abilities of my family are not theirs to use for their own ends in their pitiful internal squabbles." Inside, Julie winced at the exaggerated expressions that she was using, actually quoted from an abortive attempt she made in writing a fictionalised account of Power Pack's dealings with the Snarks. Somehow, she felt that the alien woman would appreciate the rich language.

Much to Julie's surprise, Lyja pulled a stool out from underneath the counter that occupied the centre of the kitchen and sat down, looking at her levelly. "It is good that you have been blooded, even at such a young age," she announced. "Make no mistake, Lightspeed of Earth: To court the son of Mister Fantastic is to invite the enmity of powers of a magnitude that you cannot possibly imagine. Powers next to whom those overgrown bugs the Zn'rx are nothing but _fleas_!"

"Nothing worthwhile is without a risk," Julie replied quietly and defiantly. "If it is not worth _fighting_ for, then it is not worth having."

Lyja nodded sadly, thinking of her own exile from her entire species and culture when she chose to bond herself to Johnny. "Indeed. However, sometimes the sacrifice necessary is painful beyond measure." She looked up again, meeting the young human female's eyes. "Remember this, Lightspeed of Earth, Franklin has friends who would take the greatest exception to any plot to harm him. However, he also has enemies who would take the greatest delight in _causing_ him pain, especially by way of taking away that which he loves. I will _not _permit anyone to make him vulnerable because they were unable to survive the world that he inhabits."

"Look, I'm not a babe in arms," Julie snapped, crossing her arms defensively. "I've met aliens and fought threats way beyond what most kids of my age can even _imagine_. Just being an active superhero brings risk! Franklin is… he is the closest… _friend _that I've ever had and I won't ever give him up! I'm willing to take _any_ problems that being with him brings upon me! " Something about Lyja's disdainful expression as she listened to Julie made the girl lose a little of her self-control and she continued, fists clenched and her voice rising in anger, to utter truths that she had previously never even admitted to _herself_. "I will be part of his life for as long as he wants! As long as I _can be_! _I'm not afraid to love him_!" Julie gasped and covered her mouth when she realised what she had said with her last, nearly shouted, declaration.

Lyja smiled in a perfectly ghastly way, her eyes filled with a certain mocking pity. "Not afraid? Oh, you _will_ be." The alien woman leaned forward to glare into the young human's eyes, somehow seeming to see right through the lenses of her goggles. "_You will be!_"

Lyja stood up and strode firmly but unhurriedly out of the kitchen. Julie covered her chest in an attempt to hold in her pounding heart as the adrenaline slowly drained from her system. _Did… did she just quote Yoda at me?_ the badly-disoriented young woman asked herself.

* * *

Sue and Reed stood on the rear deck of Pier 4 and watched as Franklin and Lightspeed exchanged farewells before the young woman in magenta-and-black took to the skies and vanished into the evening on a rainbow trail of light. Franklin wore a pleased and relaxed smile as he walked back into the residence. If it were in his nature, Sue bet that the boy would be dancing.

The two lovers stood outside together for a while longer as the sun vanished behind the towers of Manhattan behind them. "You didn't tell her that you knew she was really Julie Power," Reed announced.

Sue blinked at her husband. "Er… how…?"

"Simple logic," Reed responded with a shrug. "If you recall, Franklin first met the Power family shortly after they first moved to New York, evidently approximately at the same time when Lightspeed's abilities first began to manifest themselves. According to SHIELD records, rumours of 'super-children', including one with powers recognisably similar to hers, operating, originally in the upper East Side and, more recently, on the Lower East Side, all date from periods when the Powers were resident in the city."

Reed stretched his arms around his wife to hold her tightly against him. "These factors all are suggestive that the Power family is associated with these alleged 'super-children' in some way. Additionally, the dates prove that Franklin and Lightspeed's powers first began to manifest themselves strongly at approximately the same time. The close friendship Franklin has enjoyed with the Power children would allow for them both to have developed the familiarity with each other's abilities and the confidence in each other's tactics and skills that their 'patrols' together would have required. There was no way that Franklin could have first contacted Lightspeed without our knowing in the time-frame required for their abilities and mutual confidence in each other to have developed appropriately. _Unless_, of course,they first met in their civilian identities, with our knowledge, and came to know of each other's powers a short time later."

Reed placed a kiss on Sue's cheek. "The behavioural evidence simply backs this up. Franklin has clearly developed a close relationship with Lightspeed but Johnny reports that he has _also _developed a similarly close relationship with Julie Power. It is simply not in Franklin's nature to attempt to maintain two such relationships. Even if it was, Lightspeed has clearly demonstrated that she is a student in Franklin's year at Clayton P. Sturgeon High School. It would not be possible for him to maintain relationships with two girls in the same year and at the same school without the deception failing in a relatively short time frame, due to the extremely closed nature of the school community. The physical similarities between the two young women in question are merely the clinching argument. There is no logical way for Lightspeed to be anyone other than Julie Power."

"As for how I know that you already knew?" Reed grinned at his wife, who had settled back in his arms. "As soon as I deduced Lightspeed's secret identity, it was self-evident that you would have done so too. You are too close to the Power family not to have seen through Julie's disguise." Reed quirked an eyebrow in a mock-professorial manner. "QED," he concluded.

Sue raised an eyebrow. "My personal super-genius," she teased. "My reason for not telling her was that I don't want to frighten her off, Reed. She is terrified of exposure right now, which, given Margaret Power's sometimes… well, slightly _inflexible_ views on 'normality', is not entirely unsurprising. I want her to view us as friends and trust us with her secret before I tell her that it isn't a secret any more." Sue growled. "Lyja hasn't made that any easier."

Reed laughed gently. "Don't misunderstand Lyja, love. She's worried about Franklin, of course, but I believe she was quite impressed by Julie. I heard her plotting about some kind of training program that would, to quote her 'have the Kree Elite Guard capitulating at the very rumour of her presence'."

Sue had to laugh too. Lyja, mostly due to her military training and warrior culture, was rough around the edges but she was a truly good soul underneath all the armour and spikes. "Reed, she cares for Franklin. She cares for him more than would just be expected from a friend, no matter how close."

"I think Franklin feels the same about her," Reed replied. "However, they're both young yet. Let's give them the space they need to decide what they are going to be to each other and not let them do something that they might regret before they are _certain_."


	5. Going Public

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

**Author's Notes**

This represents the end of the main 'Unmasked' story thread. However, I am planning a possible epilogue, showing the wider reaction to events in this chapter (both friendly and otherwise). I am also planning a possible action-based sequel with the full six-member Pack getting their official 'coming out' as fully-fledged heroes of the Marvel universe.

Censor: T – Just for safety's sake

**Chapter 5 – Going Public**

Joe Lawrence grinned as he watched his best friend, Franklin Richards, pace back and forth in the IT lab at Clayton P. Sturgeon High School. It was Monday, which meant it was the meeting day for the Comp-Tech Club, which meant that he and his great and glorious Club Captain, Franklin, had to stay behind to clean up the classroom after the meeting was finished. "Family," Franklin said, "is overrated sometimes. They're driving me crazy, man!"

"What, they don't like your girlfriend?" Joe grinned at his best friend's forbidding glare. "Don't look at me like that; you know it's the truth!"

Franklin sat down in one of the chairs around the classroom's central 'counter' of desks and ran a hand through his short blond hair. "It isn't that they don't like Julie," he said (Joe noticed that he didn't use the 'G' word). "It's that they seem to like her too much! They're all over her like ants on spilled jam at a Central Park picnic! If it isn't Mom and Dad asking probing questions while trying not to _seem_ to ask probing questions, it's Aunt Lyja wanting to train her to double as some kind of bodyguard!" _Or Uncle Johnny challenging her to an airborne race down the East River!_ Franklin added silently. It was odd that his uncle seemed to be younger than Julie, even though he was twenty years older than her.

"Bodyguard?" Joe couldn't help but grin at that. He'd been on the receiving end of one rare Julie Power rage and he thought that there were few _sane _people in creation who would want to face off against the redhead when she was annoyed. "That I'd like to see! Especially in one of those great skin-tight spandex uniforms!" Franklin glared at Joe and growled a little at the thought of the other teen staring at Julie whilst she was wearing her Lightspeed costume. Joe chuckled, pleased to have beaten Franklin's usual refusal to admit to being jealous of anyone else looking at Julie. "Why do they think you need a bodyguard though? I mean, didn't you once make a whole pocket _universe_ to protect your folks from that Onslaught dude?"

Franklin winced, not really wanting to be reminded of one of the many times he had been manipulated by powerful and malevolent beings to remake the world for their benefit. One of the reasons he rarely even _imagined_ using his power full-out was because of that potential for abuse. "I can't do stuff like that at a drop of a hat," he said at last. "Even the smallest stuff needs to be thought out way in advance or I'll end up accidentally deleting Miami or something."

"Cool. Can you do that to the Red Sox?"

Franklin decided to pass over Joe's enthusiastic embracing of the New York vs. Boston baseball blood feud. "Anyway, it's really all about my Aunt Lyja. I guess it comes from her background – she was raised to be a soldier from the moment she was old enough to walk so she tends to think of everything in terms of a potential fight, y'know? She seems to think that anyone associated with me needs to be ready for Dr. Doom or Mole Man to jump out of their locker one morning or something."

Joe couldn't help but grin. "Man, I'd pay real money to see that happen." Both boys couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the Dictator of Latveria standing in the middle of the main corridor, shouting 'Bow before Doom!' at Devere. "Y'know what I think?" Joe said. "I think that your problem is that you had a nice 'comfort zone' thing going with just you knowing that you were seeing the lovely Ms. Power and you are afraid to deal with goin' public with her."

Franklin glared at Joe for a few moments and, for a panicked second, the African-American boy could have sworn that the irises his best friend's eyes had turned _amber _and were _glowing_. Then Franklin suddenly looked down, his anger turning into shame and resignation. "No," he said. "I'm afraid that she'll realise that Aunt Lyja is right; that I _am_ bad news and that she'd be better off finding someone else."

Joe stood up and walked over to his best friend, putting a companionable hand on his shoulder. "You're really doing her a disservice man," he announced. "You really ought to give her the respect of letting _her_ make that choice."

Franklin sighed and nodded. "It's a big step, Joe," he said at last. "She's something really special and I am afraid of screwing it up!"

Joe nodded sympathetically. "I'm glad I don't have a girlfriend," he suddenly announced. "It seems like so much _work_!" Laughing, he easily dodged the text book Franklin threw at his head.

_

* * *

_

I'm not afraid to love him! I'm not afraid to love him! I'm not afraid to love him! I'm not afraid…

Curled up on her side on her bed, Julie didn't know whether to thank Lyja or curse the alien woman for forcing her to say those words out loud. Before that, with the words unsaid, Julie could occupy a nice, pleasant self-deluding comfort zone where she could pretend that they were crime-fighting partners and best friends. Now she had to face the reality of just how strongly she felt about Frank and just how deeply he had burrowed into her young heart.

Lyja had even candidly admitted that forcing this revelation had been her intention when she had confronted Julie that evening in the Richards' kitchen. The Skrull woman, in between her apparent attempts to assess Julie's skill as a fighter, had remarked that she was not willing to wait for her 'human emotions to complete their glacial trek through the wilderness of denial and self-doubt', thus leaving them both vulnerable. "_You have faced the truth of your feelings,_" Lyja had said. "_Now you must decide if you wish to act upon them or not. If you do, you must make them plain to Franklin or risk playing him false. If not, you must purge yourself of them NOW lest you cause great pain to you both_."

With a sigh, Julie rolled over, ending up spread-eagled on her back, and wished that someone would just drop down out of the sky and tell her what to do next! She'd never felt so strongly about someone as she did about Frank. But… how reliable were her feelings at her age? And what if Frank wasn't willing to make a move immediately?"

"Is she just gonna keep tossing and turning and sighing all day?" a very loud, annoyed and obnoxious voice asked from the other end of the room.

"Oh you bet," replied another voice, slightly higher-pitched and full of malicious humour. "She's pining over her _Frank_. Oh Frank, Frank! Kiss me!" There followed the most grotesque mock-kissing noises.

"Yuck! Katie, that's my _brother_ you're talking about! That is _so_ sick and wrong!"

Julie sat up and glared over at Katie Power and Valeria Richards, who were sitting Indian-style on Katie's bed, allegedly playing Pokémon by wi-fi link but actually gossiping. "Mind your own business, brats," she hissed at them.

Katie stuck out her tongue at her older sister and tossed her strawberry-blonde pigtail over her shoulder in a mock-sophisticated way. "You know what I think?" she asked Valeria.

The other 10-year-old, with sunshine blonde hair in an outrageous piratical topknot, shot Julie a mischievous look before turning to her best friend and sister-in-all-but-blood. "What?"

"I think that Julie needs to get moving and actually _tell _Franklin what she thinks of him before he gets bored and finds someone else!"

Valeria grinned maliciously and feigned astonishment, looking at Julie. "You think that she has something to tell him?" she gasped.

"Why of course!" Katie agreed, smirking at Julie. "She wants to have _huggles_ and _kisses _and to play happy families all day long with her _Frank_! She says so in her diary."

If looks could kill, Katie would have instantly been flayed alive with brands of fire by the look Julie shot at her. _I knew that little brat had been reading my diary over my shoulder! I ought to…!_

"With my _brother_?" Valeria shook her head. "It takes all sorts, I guess! I can't see why, though! I mean he's… ugh! Well, he's no big catch as far as I can tell!"

"Frank is a great guy!" Julie shouted hotly, driven to defend Franklin from detractors. "Why shouldn't I want to be with…!" The older girl gasped and covered her mouth in horror as the two younger girls laughed uproariously at the success of their impromptu prank.

"_She's goin' to the chapel and she's… Gonna get ma-a-arried! Goin' to the Chapel of Lo-ove!_" the two pre-teens chorused, giggling. Their laughter only got louder as they ducked under the pillow Julie threw at them. They immediately took up their mocking chorus again.

"_What's this we see?  
What's this we see?  
Julie and Franklin,  
Sittin' in a tree!  
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!_"

"_First comes love,  
Next comes marriage!  
Julie is pushing  
A baby carr…_"

"VENGEANCE!" Julie screamed, practically leaping off her bed to charge at the two teenybopper hellions.

…

"_Come back here you two little __BRATS__! GOTCHA!_"

"_AAH! Noogie attack! Val! A little help here!_"

"_You will never defeat Fantastigirl and Energiser, foul Big Sister Girl!_"

"_Aargh! Get off my back! Two-on-one isn't fair! Ah-HAH! That showed you!_"

"_WOAH! Did Auntie Lyja show you that move…? "_

_"C'mere you little SNEAKS!_"

"_Uh, Katie, maybe this wasn't such a great… EEEEEE! No! Don't tickle me there! Let me GOOO!!!_"

"_Hey! Let her… __EEEEP__!_"

"_Ha! Not so smart now, huh? I can handle both of you now I know your __**secret weaknesses**__!_"

"_No! Julie! We're sorry! We're sor-EEEEEEE! HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!!!_"

"_Fear the vengeance of the big sister wronged!_"

"_SQUEEEE-EEEEEE!_"

"Girls! Keep it down! I don't want the neighbours to think I'm cutting you up for dinner or something!" Sitting in the living room of the Power apartment and trying to read a book, Margaret shook her head and smiled happily. It was reassuring that, even though Julie was growing up so fast, she could still be a carefree child when she needed to be. She had been more than a little worried about how wistful and thoughtful Julie had been recently.

Margaret supposed that it would never get easier, having a child grow up and slowly drift away to start their own life. The fact that Alex spent more time with Allison than he did at home these days was hard enough. How it would be when he started college, she didn't want to guess. Now Julie was quickly drifting away and it was all too plain that her heart was now set on a young man as well as a home and family of her own that was looming ever closer in her future.

All in all, Margaret had come to treasure the last reminders of a carefree childhood of friendship, rivalry, love and laughter.

* * *

Julie Power, in the garb of Lightspeed, was standing on the raised walkway that ran around the first floor of the Pier 4 residence. She had just completed (at her own request) a bruising sparring session with Lyja the Laser-Fist that had the Skrull woman grinning at her in a disturbingly carnivorous way. The fact that Julie had actually got past the Skrull's defences and knocked her across the gymnasium set up in the basement lot across the road from Pier 4 was a source of some pride for the girl. It was the first time in the two weeks or so that they had been engaged in this informal training that she had managed that!

It was weird how she was getting so _used_ to spending the evenings over here. First, it had just been visiting Frank every evening during the second week of his grounding, evenings that had included as much interaction with Franklin's family and their friends as it was with him. (Meeting Phoenix and Cyclops of the X-Men that time plus their twin kids, Rachel and Nate, blew her mind!) Lately, she found that she simply had got in the habit of flying over to Pier 4 every evening to spend at least a little time with Franklin and his family. In its own way, Pier 4 and its inhabitants were becoming as much a part of her life as her own home and family.

However, Julie was smart enough to realise that she had unintentionally driven herself down a one-way street. The Richards family and their friends were now clearly seeing 'Lightspeed' as Frank's _de facto _girlfriend! In that context, what role did Julie Power have? She couldn't exactly go out on a date with Frank in costume… could she?

_Great! Katie's right, I'm a hopeless case! I'm already thinking of dates with Frank!_ Julie sighed and looked down as another part of her psyche responded. _And why shouldn't I? Wasn't I the one who asked him if being his girlfriend would be such a terrible thing? And was so relieved when he said he thought it wouldn't be?_

All in all, Julie was more than pleased to have someone interrupt this increasingly frustrating introspection. "I heard that you managed to knock Lyja over," Sue Richard said, handing the girl a glass of orange juice.

Julie blushed prettily before responding. "I got lucky," she demurred.

"Luck is not enough with someone of Lyja's skill," Sue countered. "Frankly, she was grinning like a Cheshire Cat at you 'plotting and executing a fine tactical trap'. She has been very worried about you not really being able to 'look after' Franklin."

Julie giggled despite her previous feelings of angst. "I'd hope there was more to that than fighting."

Sue smiled. "I would hope so too." The older woman looked out over the harbour towards the distant lights of Staten Island. "You know, Lightspeed, I enjoy your visits. You've become quite the fixture here."

"I'm enjoying visiting too."

"I'm sure that you do." _Or, rather, you are enjoying visiting Franklin_, Sue added in her most impish internal voice. "Of course," she continued aloud, "there is a limit to how much you can do, coming in costume. I'm afraid that we aren't letting Franklin go out super-adventuring with you any time soon, you know."

Julie sighed and visibly sagged. "I know," she said quietly. "I did this so I could stay close to him whilst he was grounded… but now I'm afraid that I've messed things up! Lightspeed can Omega's partner in the fight for peace and justice… but she _can't _be Franklin Richards' girlfriend!" Julie was surprised at how strangely _easy_ it was to admit that to Frank's mother.

"And you want to be that?" Sue asked compassionately. "You want to be his girlfriend?"

There was a long dead pause and Sue could see the girl was fighting an incredible internal battle against her own doubts and fears. "More than anything," she finally admitted.

Sue nodded. "Could you come with me, please honey?"

Sue led Julie into the den, where Reed, Ben and Johnny were sitting watching the news channel on the big-screen TV. Without bothering to ask her men-folk's permission, Sue turned off the TV. "Hey!" Johnny protested. "I was actually doing something serious for once!"

"Johnny," Sue announced as if her younger brother had not spoken. "Franklin is currently doing some make-work chores in his room. Please keep him there until I say it is okay to let him join us."

Johnny stood up and was about to comply when his eyes fell on Lightspeed. The blond man's brows furrowed in thought. "Something is gonna happen, isn't it?" he said. "Can't you send Ben to distract Frankie? I wanna _watch_! I'll be good, honest!"

Completely unexpectedly, Lyja appeared in the door leading to the hallway. "I can always simply break all your limbs and carry you to the ICU ward, husband," the Skrull woman announced levelly in that way that Julie had never decided was meant to be genuinely threatening or simply mock-threatening.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "No, Lyja, don't hold back. Tell me what you really think!"

"Oh, you don't want me to do that," Lyja responded with a flirtatious smile that made Johnny grin at her. The two Storms left, leaving Julie standing with Sue whilst Reed and Ben looked on.

Suddenly, Ben Grimm lurched to his feet. "No sense trustin' Match-Head to do anythin'," he growled. "I'll play door." With that the orange-pebbled giant lumbered off too.

Sue led a confused Julie over to the easy chair opposite the couch where Reed sat and sat her down on it. Sue sat down next to her husband. There was a long pause before Julie broke the silence. "Um… Dr. Richards? Mrs. Richards? I'm… not in _trouble_ am I? I mean… I'm sorry that I broke up the gym while I was sparring with Mrs. Storm…"

Reed laughed. "Don't worry, Lightspeed," he said. "Ben and Johnny cause more damage than that when they spar. No, Susan and I need to speak to you about something."

"Lightspeed," Sue said, taking charge. "Do you trust us?"

Julie thought that was an odd question. "Well… of course!"

"_Really _trust us, I mean," Sue continued. "Not just as people with whom you regularly spend time, but as people to rely on if the situation gets bad?"

Julie looked Sue in the eye. "Um… yeah. Yeah, I do. You're all good people, even if Mr. Storm can be a pain and Mrs. Storm can be frightening sometimes. You all obviously love Frank and want the best for him and you've all been very kind to me!" Julie suddenly grinned. "Even Mrs. Storm! Once you get past the 'super-soldier' thing, she's really cool to know!"

"I'm glad to hear that honey," Sue said. "We've come to trust you too and we know that you will do the right thing, especially where Franklin is concerned. Now, with this in mind, I have a request to make to you."

_This is it_, Julie thought, her heart in her throat and tears pushing at the back of her eyes. _They are going to tell me to stop coming over here! That they aren't going to let me see Frank because I'm putting him in danger or something!_

Sue leaned forward. "Julie," she said, clearly and distinctly. "Could you take your mask off for me please, honey?"

Julie froze, her mouth falling open in shock and horror. "M… My mask? You want me to tell you who I… _Wait_!" The girl lurched to her feet and her voice began to rise in panic. "What… _what did you call me_?"

Reed reached out, stretching his arm so it could touch Julie's shoulder. Gently but firmly, he pushed the girl back into her chair. "Susan called you by your name," he said in a reassuring tone of voice. "Julie Power. We've known for some time."

"I… You found out…? I… but…!" Julie was on the verge of tears. She thought that she had been smarter than this! Now the Richards would tell her parents and everything would be ruined!

"I asked you if you could trust us, Julie," Sue said quietly. "You said that you could." The unspoken inference was there. If Julie trusted the Richards, then she had to trust them to do the right thing with the secret of her identity.

Julie sighed. "How did you find out?" she asked, hunching in on herself. She wondered if Sue had used her invisibility powers to follow her home one evening or something.

"Simple logic," Reed replied gently. Sue shot him a look warning him silently that a lecture was not required, so he simply summarised. "You didn't make many mistakes, all things considered. Only someone who knew of Franklin's relationships with _both_ Julie Power and Lightspeed could deduce from the available evidence that the two girls were, in fact, the same person." Reed cocked his head. "There are some who might have guessed you and your siblings' secret but we will be more than glad to help you in muddying the trail to throw them off."

"Julie, we would never betray you," Sue said. "We know you are a good person, that you care for Franklin and that he cares for you. We would never do anything to jeopardise the safety of either of you."

Julie nodded before sitting up straighter. With a strange sense of _liberation_ she pulled down her mask until it hang around her neck and looked up at Franklin's parents. Sue smiled as she looked into Julie's green eyes for the first time since she last visited Margaret at home several months ago. So much had changed between her and the girl since then. "I'm… sorry that I didn't tell you the truth right away, Mrs. Richards," Julie said after a long, awkward pause.

"You did the right thing, honey," Sue replied. "Your identity is your greatest secret and most terrible vulnerability; you were right to protect it." Sue turned to the door and smiled at Ben, who had turned around and was watching the unmasking with a strange broad grin. "Ben could you tell Johnny?"

Ben nodded. "Yo! Match-Head! Frankie can come up now!"

A few moments later, a confused Franklin walked in, clearly being steered in by his uncle. The teen's face lit up when he saw Julie in a way that made Sue smile nostalgically. It only took a split second for Franklin's quick wits to identify the change in the redheaded superhuman girl. "J… Lightspeed! You've taken off your mask!" he blurted.

Julie nodded. "There didn't seem any point to it anymore," she said. "After all, they already knew who I really was."

Franklin imitated a landed fish for a few moments. "Julie… I… uh…" The boy looked around the room at his smiling parents and kin. "I _swear_ that I didn't tell them."

Julie stood up and walked over to Frank and, with a certain courage that surprised her more than it did anyone else (and brought a slight grin to Johnny's face), she cupped Franklin's cheek in her hand, making him blush. "I know," she said. "I guess that some secrets just weren't meant to last." With that, the girl stepped back from her friend. "Costume off," she commanded.

There was a flash of golden light and Julie Power stood in the middle of the room, wearing a tight pink-and-white hooped tee-shirt under an open-fronted denim jacket and dark blue jeans. There was a long pause as the two teens looked at each other, seemingly alone in the room together. "Now," Sue said firmly, "I think that you two have something to say to each other, don't you? Why don't you step outside onto the veranda?"

As Frank and Julie walked out of the door, Johnny went to follow, only to bounce off of an invisible force wall. He shot his sister a hurt look but the glare that she shot back at him made him subside.

* * *

The two teens stood outside. Whilst trying to keep a respectful distance, none of the so-called 'adults' could resist crowding around the door from the Den out onto the veranda to watch.

"Um…" Frank said.

"Yeah," Julie agreed. Both laughed before turning to look at each other. They took each other's hands and just spent a few moments collecting their thoughts.

"This is… Gee, this is harder than I thought it would be!" Frank said.

"Maybe that's for the best because it shouldn't be something that you say every day," Julie said.

"Maybe you're right," Frank agreed. The boy spent a few more moments in silence, realising how _comfortable_ he felt here and now, holding Julie's hands, and how he never really wanted the moment to end. "Look… I told you that you being my girlfriend wouldn't be a terrible thing and I meant it. The thing is, Julie, my life… well it isn't ordinary or normal or even _safe_ by any standards. Between my dad's old college room-mate and every other crazy coming down the line…"

Julie rolled her eyes. "Um, Frank? Girl whose parents got kidnapped by aliens _twice_? The one whose dad's old boss became a super-villain just so he could kill her and her brothers and sister? The one who went toe-to-toe with Death to keep her mother alive until the hospital could get their emergency generator on-line? Believe me, I don't think I've got any criteria to judge 'normal'."

"Yeah, I know, sad isn't it?" Frank said with a mischievous grin.

_"What are they waiting for? Why don't they get on with it?"_

_"Husband, I can simply cut out your tongue, here and now, and staple it to your forehead as a warning to others!"_

Fortunately, neither teen heard the Storms' flirting.

"The thing is… I _really_ like you, Julie Power. I like you a _lot_. Having you around…" Franklin stopped and shook his head, not having the words to fully express himself. "The closest I can manage is that you are the variable that completes the equation. Things just don't make sense anymore without you around."

_"That's my boy!"_

_"Reed!"_

Julie smiled broadly and warmly, showing lots of teeth. "I _really _like you too, Frank Richards. I like you a _lot_. You are… you are the thing that gives me direction. Without you as my goal, I'm not living, I'm just wandering through life."

"Really? You mean that?"

"Frank, do you really think that I went to all that trouble to buy a revealing wardrobe and bribe Allison to sneak me out so that I could get a navel piercing just to be noticed at school?" Frank looked at Julie in some surprise. "I did it for _you_, you goof! I wanted you… I wanted you to realise that I was a woman as well as your best friend. I wanted you to… to…"

"To desire you?" Frank grinned charmingly and released one of Julie's hands to cup her cheek, making the girl brush brightly. He was strangely overjoyed by the fact that she did not break eye contact despite her strong reaction.

_"She has a __**what**__? Man! That is so __**hot**__! My Frankie really is a chip off the old…"_

_"Match-Head, you are cruisin' for a bruisin'!"_

"Yes," Julie admitted. "To notice me and realise that I can be more than just a friend."

"Oh Julie, you didn't have to do something like that for me! I noticed that you were beautiful long before then! I've known ever since you came back to New York! I meant what I said not so long ago, y'know! You _are_ the hottest girl in our school!"

Julie laughed and, just as suddenly, stopped. "What… what did you say?"

"Uh… about being 'hot'? Uh… Sorry, not the most tactful way…"

"No, before that! About when I came back to New York!"

There was a long pause. "I… I said that I noticed then that you are… beautiful."

Julie took Frank's hand, which was still touching her face, in her own and squeezed it. "Thank you," she whispered. "That is the best thing that you could have ever said to me!"

Frank looked at the suddenly incredibly close-by girl and tried to focus his mind. "Julie… I like you so much that I want to work out exactly what we can be for each other in the future."

"I'd like that," Julie responded. She looked up at Frank (and when did he get taller than her?).

"So… uh… I guess that means we're an item, right?"

Julie smiled and quirked an eyebrow mockingly. "I think I'd like to hear you ask before you make that assumption, Mr. Richards."

Frank swallowed a sudden rock that had lodged in his throat. "Uh… Oh. Right. Um… Julie…?"

"Yes Frank?"

"Julie… I like you a lot and I swear that I will always do right thing by you."

"Thank you, Frank. I swear that I will always to the right thing by you too."

Frank drew in a deep breath. "Julie…?" This time the girl didn't respond, just looked into his eyes, nodding silently to ask him to continue. "Julie… would you be my girlfriend?"

There was a simultaneous intake of breath from the adults crowded around the door.

"Frank?"

"Yes Julie?"

"You had me at 'Hello'."

"Um…?"

Julie's smile became mischievous, yet sensual. "That means 'yes', you doofus." Franklin's smile was every bit as broad as Julie's as this sank in.

The two teens moved towards each other, closing the last distance between them. Julie could feel her blood rushing in her ears. Her breathing had become quick and shallow and all she could see was Frank's blue eyes as she leaned in, letting her right hand rest against his strong chest. Both teens eyes slid shut and they leant closer until their lips finally met with the gentlest, sweetest contact. Julie's free hand slid up Frank's chest to curve behind his head as Frank's free hand came up behind her back to hold her that little closer. At that moment, Frank and Julie both realised that this was somewhere that they wanted always to be and something that they wanted to do again and again.

_"Aw…! It's… It's so lovely! I'm going to come to pieces here!"_

_"Shut up, Match-Head!"_

_"Husband, you are a total sentimental klutz! You are lucky that I love you!"_

_"Sue…? Are you okay? Here, have my handkerchief." _

_"I'm okay Reed. In fact… I think… I think I feel… happy!"_

Frank and Julie finally broke their lip-lock and, their hands still clasped in between them, just rested their foreheads together, their eyes closed. "I love you, Julie," Frank whispered.

Julie smiled. "I know," she replied.

With the air of ones awaking from a dream, the two teens finally moved apart. Franklin placed a kiss on Julie's forehead and then, still holding her hand, he led his _girlfriend_ towards his family. His mom looked paradoxically sad, happy and proud all at once. His father's reserved smile told a whole story of its own as did Uncle Ben's whole body posture. He almost laughed at his Uncle Johnny's broad, beaming smile of pride and the way Aunt Lyja was clearly restraining him from doing or saying something stupid.

There was still so much to do, Julie realised. There was the issue of what, if anything, to tell her family about her powers and secret life. There was the question of how much, if anything, to tell the Richards about the origin of her and her siblings' powers and the galactic events of which they had been a part. Heck, she still wasn't even sure how she was going to explain to her parents how she got herself a boyfriend! However, as she looked at Frank and noted his confident smile, she knew that she could do anything with him at her side.


	6. Epilogue

**Unmasked**

A Marvel Crossover

**Disclaimer**

All recognisable characters and locations in this story are the sole copyright and trademark property of Marvel Comics Incorporated. No breach of either copyright or trademark is intended. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the worldwide web.

Censor: T – Just for safety's sake

**Epilogue**

Margaret Power didn't know what had come over her eldest daughter. When she had come down from the roof (where she had allegedly been doing her homework) the girl had been smiling fit to crack open her face!

The reactions of the other kids had been quite revealing in their own way. Katie simply rolled her eyes before going back to listening to something she insisted was 'music' on her iPod. Alex observed his sister with hooded eyes and a pensive expression that Margaret had long since come to associate with her firstborn attempting to 'work out' some mystery of life. Jack seemed initially inclined to offer some teasing comment but either allowed his better nature to dissuade him or had decided that making a comment would be an incredibly painful way to end the evening (and possibly his life). Whatever had happened, it was clear to everyone that it was of the greatest significance to Julie.

Margaret watched her daughter practically dance through the night, seemingly oblivious to those around her, either staring off into space or hugging herself with a broad smile. Finally, after shooing Katie off to bed (and proving once again that she was quite immune to her youngest child's pout) she grabbed Julie for a word or two.

The Power family apartment was on the top storey of the brownstone building. One particular feature that made James willing to pay extra for the lease was the inclusion of a large open-topped balcony at the end of the apartment, beyond the bathroom and kitchen and accessible through glass 'porch' doors in the lounge. As well as allowing Margaret to follow her gardening hobby, the balcony area was also ideal for getting away for a short time from the rest of the family. Margaret now dragged Julie out there, a brief look exchanged with James assuring her that he would keep Alex and Jack (who was fighting against bedtime) out of the way.

"Okay, Julie, what happened? What did Frank do?"

Julie blinked stupidly at her mother. "F… Frank? What do you mean, Mom?"

Margaret rolled her eyes. "Please don't take me for a fool, Julie. I know that you've been seeing Frank every night for the last few months except the week when he was completely grounded." Panic flared up in Julie's green eyes and Margaret immediately knew that her supposition was confirmed. "I admit that I hadn't worked out how it was possible until Sue mentioned a few days ago that Franklin can use his powers to fly. It didn't take a genius to realise that all those times that you wanted to be 'alone' on the roof, he was actually flying over from the Richards' house to see you."

Julie's mind raced, astonished that her mother had worked out so much and had yet come to a wrong conclusion. _She still hasn't even guessed that we might have powers of our own_, she thought hurriedly. This was an unexpected chance to keep up her façade of normality with her mother. Of course, she could also come clean but she didn't want to do that before she had a chance to talk to the others. Finally, Julie decided to avoid telling the truth without actually lying. Besides, she had to tell someone before her heart burst! "Yeah… yeah, you're right, Mom. We've been seeing each other all those times I've been going up to the roof."

Margaret smiled in vindicated triumph. "Something tells me tonight was different?" she asked. She couldn't help but chuckle at the way her daughter seemed ready to just _soar away_ with emotion.

"Oh Mom!" Julie gasped, hugging herself with a blissful smile. "He… He asked me to be his girlfriend! He _kissed _me! He said he _loved me_! Oh it was wonderful!" The girl stepped away from her mother to pirouette around, her arms flung out. "I'm so happy!" she sighed. "I love him _so much_!"

Margaret sighed. This had been inevitable, given how close Julie had got to Franklin, especially at their ages. Still, now she knew the truth, she could take action. She stepped forward and pulled her daughter into a hug. "I'm so happy for you, darling," she whispered into her ear. "A first love is always something special; treasure it in your heart." Margaret broke the hug. As distasteful as it was, now she had to be firm. "However, I'm afraid that these rooftop meetings have to end."

"What? Mom! _NO!_"

"Julie, I won't argue with you about this; it is non-negotiable if you want to keep seeing Franklin. Now, I've been willing to look the other way because you two were allegedly just best friends and were only meeting to talk and do your homework together." Margaret held Julie out at arms length and looked into her eyes. "Julie, now you two are moving your relationship onto the next level, I can't let you spend time together unsupervised." The girl was about to protest; Margaret silenced her by squeezing her shoulders. "Frank can still come over or you can go over to Pier Four if you like. However, I am going to insist that you always have someone with you when you are together for now, just as I did with Alex and Allison. This is for your own protection, Julie. I don't want you letting these feelings, especially when they are so wonderful and new, fool you into making bad choices. Do you understand?" Julie pouted and looked down for a moment. Margaret sighed and tilted her daughter's face up with a finger under the chin. "Do you understand, Julie?"

Julie nodded. "Yeah, I understand, Mom," she said at last, her tone of voice bitter and betrayed.

"I'm not trying to interfere, Julie," Margaret said. "I'm just looking out for you. Now you and Frank are girlfriend and boyfriend, the rules have to change. You have opened certain doors in your hearts and you'll find that you both have new desires that you never thought would come between you before."

Julie rolled her eyes. "Mom! We're not gonna rush out and… and… and have _sex_ or something!" the last part of that sentence was murmured and delivered looking down with a bright blush.

Margaret wasn't offended by her daughter's candour. "You aren't the first girl to say that, Julie. I can assure you that lots of those other girls later found out that they were only fooling themselves when they said it too. If you and Franklin can prove that we can trust you together, then we'll see about letting you have more freedom. I only ask that you let us look after you both, okay?"

Julie sighed. Sometimes you solved one problem and created a dozen more! "Okay," she said. She was shocked by her mother's next words.

"So! What was he like?" Margaret grinned at Julie's reaction. "Come on! The first kiss? Your first real boyfriend? Mothers love stuff like this! Come on, give me something to work with here!"

* * *

Joe Lawrence was leaning idly on the wall near the entrance to the schoolyard at Clayton P. Sturgeon High School, waiting for his friend Franklin to arrive. He had found some company in the lovely forms of Maggie Brighton, the Captain of the Classic Books Club (who fitted every stereotype of a bookworm right up until she took off her reading glasses) and Julie Power's best girl friend, Lizzie Luong.

Joe wondered whether or not his best friend would ever find the courage to tell Julie Power that he had his eye on her. It was odd that Franklin who, from what little he had told Joe, was probably one of the most _awesomely_ powerful people on Earth, should feel nervous about anything. Of course, that was one of the great things about Franklin really: No ego problems. He was as down-to-earth as you could hope to see. "So, ladies…?" Joe raised an eyebrow at his two unexpected guests.

"Julie's late," Lizzie informed him. The Chinese-American girl sighed and ran a hand through her luxuriant long black hair. "I hope she didn't get herself in trouble with her parents or something! She's been sneaking out to see Franklin for ages and I don't think she's _that_ good at sneaking around!"

Joe was quite surprised to hear that. He would love to know how Julie managed to get over to Franklin's place without her parents knowing!

"There she is!" Maggie said, pointing.

Joe looked and, indeed, there was Julie Power, still hot (in his humble opinion) despite her noticeably toned-down sartorial choices. She had been obviously waiting by the School Bus set down/pick up point and Joe figured that he knew why too: The bus that Franklin would be riding had just pulled up.

All three teens watched Julie's tense body language and were amazed at the way the girl surged towards Franklin when he finally disembarked. If they were hoping for a 'show', they were disappointed. However, Joe knew his friend well enough to understand that he had _never_ seen him smile quite like that before and all three of them wondered exactly what Julie meant by the gentle, tentative touches to the backs of Franklin's hands.

…

"Hey, Beautiful," Frank said with a grin that, now he had met the man, Julie realised that he had copied from his Uncle Johnny.

"Hey, Boyfriend," Julie replied with a mischievous grin of her own, enjoying seeing Frank's genuinely pleased reaction to the possessive term of reference. "So, are you ready for the inquisition?"

"Inquisition?" Frank was genuinely surprised.

Julie pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Joe, Lizzie and Maggie. "They all know us well enough to figure something is up. I more-or-less swore Alex to secrecy and Allison will have only just found out by now but we are gonna have to tell these guys something." Frank nodded, Julie noting his expression nervously. This was _exactly_ the sort of expression he always wore when he was about to execute an incredibly risky spontaneous 'plan' when they used to patrol their neighbourhood together. "Frank…?"

"Julie, does the no-PDA zone include this area?"

Julie was puzzled at this strangely out-of-context question. "Um… No. This is technically the car park. Even though it's part of the campus it is considered outside the 'normal school day occupation ar…' _Frank_!"

Frank grabbed Julie and dipped her over backwards. Julie was just about to protest this rough treatment when Frank pressed his lips to hers, temporarily blowing all thoughts out of her mind.

…

Joe, Lizzie and Maggie stared open-mouthed at the display of Franklin kissing the wits out of Julie and the young lady in question clearly enjoying the experience. "Franklin Richards, you cunning dog you," Joe laughed "I knew you'd get the message that you had to do something eventually!"

"_SQUEEEEEE_!!!"

Maggie turned to the noise behind them with a raised eyebrow. "Five bucks says that that was Alex telling Allison the latest news."

"No one takes a sucker bet," Lizzie responded with a snort.

…

Frank broke the lip-lock and tilted Julie back up onto her feet and watched his girlfriend have to literally reset her brain. He noted some annoyance in her flashing green eyes, but there was also humour and a lot of affection. "Frank! Here? In front of the whole school?"

Frank shrugged. "I figured that a picture was worth a thousand words and this way we would only have to say it once!"

Julie giggled. "Franklin Jonathan Richards, you are completely and utterly _certifiable_!"

Frank shot Julie his Uncle Johnny's patented 'devil may care' smile. "Yeah, or so my doctor says. However, he says it's the 'happy' kind, so I'm probably going to be okay."

Julie's couldn't help but laugh at that whimsy and dropped a brief, happy kiss on Frank's lips before hugging him hard, proving that _she_ could knock _his_ brain off-line too. The whoops, hollers and cat-calls were suddenly broken by a single outraged adult voice. "Mister Richards! Miss Power! What is the meaning of this?"

Frank and Julie broke and directed their most innocent expressions at Mr. Devere, who was standing with the Vice-Principal, Tatiana Sergeiova, at the staff entrance to the school building. Any serious worries were dispelled by the fact that Ms. Sergeiova was clearly laughing behind the hand covering her mouth.

* * *

It was Wednesday night and that made it one of the four nights a week when the Terrible Twosome (aka Katie and Valeria) met in person, rather than just monopolise the communications circuits between the Power and Richards homes. Tonight, however, Reed Richards was also dropping off his son who was going to be meeting with his now-official girlfriend, Julie Power.

_What really makes it official was the complaint from that ersatz-teacher Devere that Julie had 'outraged decency in front of the entire school'_, James Power mused. _Technically, I suppose I'm going to have to find some way to discipline her. Margaret certainly can't do it; she lost all credibility over 'public displays' when she streaked the entire college at the Homecoming game in our senior year._

James opened the door and greeted Reed Richards. The two men did not share the closeness that their wives enjoyed. With James a lecturer at Columbia University and Reed working for Stark Industries' New York R&D labs, the two men rarely met and interacted. "I'll be over to pick them up at 8:30," Reed said.

"Okay," James responded. "I promise to keep Franklin intact and broadly untraumatised."

Reed grinned in a way that made Franklin shift nervously. Val somehow squeezed between all the various bodies in the way and ran towards Katie. The two girls hugged and exchanged incredibly loud greetings before rushing into the girls' bedroom and slamming the door behind them. Reed noted the skull-and-crossbones sign and the warning: "Boys Keep Out" on the door with a grin before bidding James and his son farewell.

"Frank!" Julie's voice was pure joy and the girl ran over to greet her boyfriend. In deference to her father, she didn't hug him or kiss him, preferring just to grab his hands and bounce up and down in excitement.

"Honey," James said, "I've got to borrow your… er… boyfriend for a few moments." He looked at his daughter's look of combined anger and fear and had to restrain a laugh. "Don't worry, I won't damage him!" he promised. "You can have him back in a few minutes!"

…

"I can't believe it!" Frank said, as he and Julie snuggled on the porch swing on the balcony. "Not only did I have to have your father promise to subtract my fundamental forces if I hurt you in any way, but then I have to run the gauntlet of your brothers too!" Frank laughed and pulled Julie slightly closer against his side, enjoying the way her hand was touching his leg.

"Jack wasn't _too_ obnoxious was he?"

"Jack was the fiercest of them all! He told me that you were _his_ older sister and that he and he _alone_ had the right to annoy you. He promised that, if I upset you, he would find me and smother me with his cloud form!" The blond teen rubbed his chest. "I think I'm gonna bruise from where he was poking me!"

Julie shook her head. Maybe Jack _did_ care for her in some weird, abnormal way! "And what about Alex?"

Frank sighed deeply and replied only reluctantly. "Alex demanded that I swear on all my family's lives that I would never use my powers on you to make you what _I _wanted you to be rather than what _you _wanted to be." Franklin lost his humour when he related that bit. Julie knew that this was his worst fear – that he might succumb to the temptation to remake reality to his own desires. "I told him that I'd die before I did that to you and that, if I ever did anything like that, he had my permission to kill me."

Julie sighed and reached over to hug Frank, rolling partly on top of him so that her face was pressed against his, cheek-to-cheek. "I trust you, Frank," she whispered into his ear. "I know that you'd never do that."

Frank smiled. "You have no idea how much happier those words make me," he murmured.

"_Franklin, Julie! A little more separation distance, if you please?_" Margaret Power called from the lounge. Julie growled angrily and did as her mother had requested, rolling back to her original position, tucked up under Frank's arm against his side.

Frank suddenly stiffened with a look of surprise on his face. "Oh, yeah, I've got something for you!" Julie looked at Frank in some puzzlement as her boyfriend disengaged and began to rifle through the pockets of his navy blue jacket with the '4' logo of his family super-team. He finally pulled out a small folded piece of velvet from an inside pocket.

"Frank, you didn't have to get something for me!" Julie's voice said, whilst her heart and mind whirled in anticipation, trying to guess what this gift would be.

"Actually, I did. It's kind of a tradition. Uncle Johnny started it when he had the first one made for Frankie Raye, you know the one who went on to become Nova, the herald of Galacticus? He had one made for every serious long-term girlfriend he had and Uncle Ben followed suit by having one made for Aunt Alicia for the time they were together." Franklin unfolded the velvet to unveil a thin golden necklace with a nickel-sized rendition in gold of the 'Circled-4' logo of the Fantastic Four.

"Why, Mr. Richards!" Julie teased. "Are you marking me as your territory?"

Frank grinned. "I'm just letting the whole world know that you're my girlfriend and that I'm darn proud of the fact," he responded. "It is also sort of marks you as part of the family."

Julie felt tears fill her eyes and was afraid that her smile would crack her face if it got any broader. "Thank you," she whispered. Frank fastened the necklace around her throat and she looked down at the '4' charm, now resting at the meeting point of her collarbones. "I love you, Frank."

Franklin smiled. "I know."

Then the two leaned towards each other for a deep, wonderful, sweet kiss. Julie Power then settled in under the arm of her boyfriend and, eyes closed, just let the sensation of the moment carry her away to a future filled with love, joy and a little blond-haired boy and a little redheaded girl playing at her feet…

* * *

"So, you have finally chosen a paramour, boy," boomed the humourless deep voice with metallic overtones. Bloodshot brown eyes glared out from behind an adamantium mask at the computer-enhanced satellite image of Franklin Richards and Julie Power snuggling on the Power family's porch swing. "And a most interesting choice indeed. Possibly even appropriate. The question is: does this make you more vulnerable… or more formidable?"

Victor von Doom, Doctor Doom, the absolute ruler of Latveria and (in his own mind) the rightful ruler of all mankind, turned from the huge wall of high-resolution monitors and strode away, his armoured boots ringing against the stone floors of his castle. His computer-like mind quickly tabulated all he knew about the Power family and, most importantly, their empowered children and those children's relationship with the Richards family.

"Doom has been lax," he rumbled, "to ignore the boy in favour of his sister because of her future potential. One could, after all, be the key to the other… and the existence of that unexpectedly effective _Pack_ of allies could possibly be the key to them all."

Doctor Doom sat down on his huge iron throne and turned his thoughts inward towards innumerable plans and schemes. Plans to grind the world under his armoured foot for all time. Schemes to make its so-called defenders his unwitting agents to that end. Plans to finally utterly vanquish Reed Richards on every level… by taking his woman for his own wife and making his enemy's children his most powerful servants, strong right and left hands… and his _heirs_.

**The End**

**Concluding Author's Note**

Hey! This is the comic book world! You didn't think that I would end on an unequivocally happy note, did you? Whenever does _that_ happen? ;-)


End file.
